







]i. 



;j'ir 



u^; i,..ln, •"^i-llJ/iKk •'i'tiijsl'i' V ii' •) 











CHCMCIfflX SATTEKLEE 



PKEST AM? MISSIONARY 



HMILTON SCHIHIER 





t? K/ 



jms 



n 



Class 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr. 



H I'ieber of /Jbcn 

CHURCHILL 3ATTERLEE 

PRIEST AND MISSIONARY— AN 

INTERPRETATION OF HIS 

LIFE AND LABORS BY 

HAMILTON SCHUYLER 




EDWIN S. GORHAM Publisher 
1905 



^} 



Copyrighted 1905 by 
Edwin S, Gorham 



UBRARV or 00!>JGRESS 
Two Copies Keceivou 

MAY 18 1905 

umsa/ <* AXc Mm 

//I /3^ 

COPY B. 



^fh 

^^'P 



The Heidingsfeld Press 
New Brunswick 



"We must be here to work, 
And men who work can only work for men. 
And, not to work in vain, must comprehend 
Humanity, and so work humanely, 
And raise men's bodies still by raising souls. 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter 1. The Maq and His Making. ... 7 

Chapter II. Grace Churchi, Morgantoq. ... 33 

Chapter III. A Country Parishj at Work. . . , 58 

Chapter IV. Pioneer Work iq the Mountains. . 91 

Chapter V. Trinity Churcf|, Columbia. .... 120 

Chapter VI. Annong the Mill Hands. .... 146 

Chapter Vll. Finishing His Course 154 

Chapter VIII. Aftermath] 171 



CHAPTER I. 

THE MAN AND HIS MAKING. 

There are, broadly speaking, three types of men 
whose Hves may be said to be worth recording; first, 
those w^hose superior mental endowments have won 
for them an unique place in the popular imagination ; 
second, those who, while lacking this distinction, have 
played important parts upon a wide stage of human 
afifairs ; third, those who, while neither eminent intel- 
lectually nor conspicuous because of their connection 
with great events, have yet possessed personalities 
which have fascinated and inspired others solely by 
their intrinsic beauty and worth. To this last class 
belongs the man with whom this book is concerned. 
Churchill Satterlee in a ministry of little more than a 
decade, and that spent mainly in an obscure back- 
w^oods village, had succeeded in so impressing his 
personality upon those among whom he labored or 
who came within the zone of his influence, as not only 
to create for himself a deep and abiding affection in 
their hearts, but also to effect a permanent change in 
their moral and spiritual outlook. It is on these 
grounds, as one who loved humanity, and gave him- 
self ungrudgingly for its uplifting, as a Fisher of 

7 



8 A FISHER OF MEN. 

Men, that Satterlee's life and work have been deemed 
worthy of interpretation. 

Churchill Satterlee was born April 27, 1867, in 
New Hamburgh, a little village in New York State, 
on the east bank of the Hudson River. He was the 
first child and only son of Henry Yates and Jane 
Churchill Satterlee. His father was at that time 
assistant minister of Zion Church, Wappinger's Falls, 
and occupied as a rectory the little cottage belonging 
to Netherwoods, the estate of Irving Grinnell, Esq. 
The child was baptized June 30, in the parish church 
by the Rev. Dr. Andrews, a clergyman who was born 
before the United States had achieved its independ- 
ence from the mother country. This was a thought 
w^hich Satterlee always cherished. 

The Satterlee family came originally from the 
little village of Sotterly in Suffolk, England, where, 
in the parish church of St. Margaret's, may still be 
seen the old family memorial brasses. During the 
Wars of the Roses their estates were confiscated, and 
one of the family, Thomas Sotterly, seems to have 
removed to Devonshire. There,^ four generations 
afterward, the Rev, William Sotterly was Vicar of 
Ide, a suburb of the City of Exeter. Being a Royal- 
ist, his property was sequestered by the Round Heads 
under Oliver Cromwell, and he himself wa€ impris- 
oned. His son Benedict, the- direct ancestor of the 
Satterlee family in this country, emigrated to America 
and settled in New London, Conn. His descendants, 
like many of the English colonists of those days, 



THE MAN. 9 

became Baptists or Congregationalists, and after- 
wards, in the case of those who removed to New 
York, Dutch Reformed. Through intermarriage 
with the Lansing and Van Rensselaer famihes a 
strain of Dutch blood was introduced and a relation- 
ship thus established with many of the leading Knick- 
erbocker families of New York State. One of Satter- 
lee's relatives in the collateral line, Joseph Yates, was 
Governor of the State of New York. On his mother's 
side there was also an admixture of Dutch with 
English blood. Timothy Gridley Churchill, his 
grandfather, a merchant of New York City, was of 
English extraction, but his wife. Patience Lawrence, 
a descendant of John Eliot the Apostle to the Indians, 
was a Riker on the mother's side. Satterlee's father, 
Henry Yates Satterlee, afterwards first Bishop of 
Washington, was the first of his family to return to 
the faith of his ancestors, and as his mother's was a 
church family, their son Churchill was reared in the 
Episcopal Church as his rightful heritage. 

New Hamburgh where Satterlee spent his child- 
hood, contained the country seats of many New 
Yorkers possessed of wealth and social position, who 
were his father's parishioners, while two miles dis- 
tant, in Wappinger's Falls, where the parish church 
was located, there was to be found beside the ordinary 
village population, a large contingent of mill oper- 
atives employed in the great Garner woollen 
mills. Thus the boy grew up surrounded by an 
atmosphere of refinement and culture, and yet 



lo A FISHER OF MEN. 

coming at the same time in close personal touch 
with the plain village folk and the working 
classes. The ability to adapt himself to all sorts 
and conditions of people which Satterlee so con- 
spicuously displayed in after life, was undoubtedly 
acquired naturally through his daily intercourse with 
all classes during his boyhood days. Privileged 
always to move on terms of perfect equality with those 
highly placed socially, he was yet able to understand 
and sympathize with the plainest and most uncouth. 
Though all his tastes were aristocratic, he was yet the 
most democratic of men, and if he possessed any pride 
of birth or ancestry, no one would ever have known 
it from his speech or bearing. 

Owing to the fact that there was no good school 
within a convenient distance, Churchill w^as taught at 
home by governesses until he was twelve years of age, 
when his parents took him to Europe with them. 
During the year they spent in travel, he was placed in 
the house of a French school-teacher in Switzerland. 
Here, having as his daily companions only foreign 
lads, he learned to speak the French language fluently, 
and moreover, thrown as it were upon his own moral 
resources, laid the foundation of the robust character 
which marked his later years. It would scarcely be 
true to say, that as a boy or young man Satterlee 
exhibited special evidence of possessing more than the 
normal interest in religious matters. As a lad he was 
conscientious and dutiful, but he does not seem to 
have impressed anybody with his piety. Perhaps, 



THE MAN. II 

indeed, he could hardly be called an especially devout 
boy. He seems to have entered with zest into the 
observance of the Church Festivals, in connection 
with which there were in his father's parish many 
unique circumstances attending, but there is nothing 
in the history of his boyhood to suggest that the min- 
istry was in his thoughts, unless an incident recalled 
of his once sprinkling water upon some kittens and 
pretending to make them Christians, may be so 
regarded. Another incident which occurred when he 
was only about eight years old, may be mentioned as 
early revealing the spirit of helpfulness to others 
which w^as one of his distinguishing traits. The story 
is recalled in a letter from a lady whom it concerned, 
w^ho was his governess at this period : 

^T was not surprised when I learned that Churchill 
had entered the ministry. I recall a little incident of 
my stay in New Hamburgh. One day in my room 
Churchill took up a book from the table, turned it 
around and upside down, trying to read it. 

"He asked, 'What kind of a book is this, Miss 
Shaw^ ?' I answered, Tt is my Spanish Bible.' Ts this 
all the Bible you have?' *A11 I have,' I replied. He 
turned over the leaves and looked puzzled. The next 
day he brought me a beautiful new English Bible, 
saying, 'Miss Shaw, I think you can read that easier.' 
On the first page he had written in his boyish hand, 
'Miss Shaw, from Churchill Satterlee, New Ham- 
burgh, July 29, 1876.' I left New Hamburgh twelve 
days afterwards, August tenth, and was married on 



12 A FISHER OF MEN. 

that day. The Httle Bible has been my constant com- 
panion ever since. I have it now in good condition 
on my Httle altar. It was probably Churchill's first 
missionary work." 

Upon the whole it may be said, that there was little 
about the boy which marked him off as in any way 
different from his companions, or which seemed to 
indicate the direction of his future career. He was 
just a simple, healthy-minded lad, who entered 
heartily into the games and sports of his associates 
and did with cheerfulness the tasks assigned him by 
his parents and teachers. 

Upon the return of his parents from their European 
trip to their home in New Hamburgh, Churchill, now 
in his fourteenth year, was sent to St. Paul's School, 
Concord. The influence of the rector, Dr. Coit, and 
the genius of the school made a deep and permanent 
impression upon young Satterlee. The friendships he 
formed there remained with him through life, and the 
gratitude and affection he ever felt and expressed for 
St. Paul's were unbounded. Owing to an accident 
which befell him while coasting, he was seriously 
injured and compelled to leave without finishing his 
course. Subsequently, from this or some other cause, 
inflammatory rheumatism set in, and Satterlee was 
compelled for several years to spend the winter 
months in the South. 

Thus from his fifteenth year until a period reaching 
into the early days of his ministry, Satterlee had to 
suffer the lassitude and weakness, as well as pain, 



THE MAN. 13 

occasioned by recurrent attacks of this disease. He 
was naturally active, with a love of athletic sports, 
which he had to forego when rheumatism set in. This 
was a keen disappointment to the young boy, and it 
was only through strong will power that the contin- 
uity of his life and studies was maintained. Thus he 
early learned the lesson of bearing pain and overcom- 
ing obstacles. He was never discouraged by physical 
weakness, and though for long periods he suffered 
severely, his bedroom was always a scene of bright- 
ness. Every morning in answer to inquiries, his 
unfailing response would be: "Oh, I am better 
to-day," and so attractive was his influence, that his 
sick-room was a meeting place for his school-boy 
friends, who came to see him as often as permitted. 

While wintering in the South he continued to 
pursue his studies under the direction of a tutor of 
Unitarian belief. The rector of the parish in the town 
where the two stayed took a great interest in both 
teacher and pupil, and subsequently, when the teacher 
was brought to Confirmation and the Holy Com- 
munion, declared his conviction that the step was 
due largely to Satterlee's influence. In speaking of 
the matter years afterwards to Satterlee's father, this 
clergyman said : "Instead of the teacher leading the 
pupil, the pupil led the teacher." 

There was nothing in Satterlee of the prig as a boy 
or man. He frankly enjoyed the acquaintance and 
companionship of many whose actions at times he was 
fain to disapprove. He did not choose his associates 



14 A FISHER OF MEN. 

with any idea that he would receive himself any 
benefit morally or otherwise. He seemed never to 
imagine that any moral fault or viciousness in them 
would redound to his own injury or sully his manly 
purity. If he refrained commonly from rebuking 
them or uttering any condemnation of their actions, 
it was not because he was indifferent to the course they 
were pursuing or that he easily condoned their 
offences, but simply because he liked them in spite of 
their faults and did not feel called upon too closely to 
scrutinize their lives. Such an attitude is often mis- 
understood and usually set down as indifference to 
moral issues. In some cases this is undoubtedly true, 
but in his case no one could know him without being 
convinced that his attitude was the result of wholly 
different motives. Doubtless all unconsciously he felt 
that they could not drag him down to their level, while 
there was a possibility that he might be the means of 
lifting them up. If he foreswore their society or made 
himself in any way unpleasant to them by the adop- 
tion of a censorious spirit, he was conscious that his 
influence over them would wholly disappear. He was 
willing to take the chances of being himself defiled, 
for the opportunity of being helpful to them. 

In 1882 Dr. Satterlee was called to become the rec- 
tor of Calvary Church, New York City, and the 
family accordingly removed thither and occupied the 
rectory on East Twenty-first Street, adjoining the 
church. This change from the conditions prevailing 
in a country village to those obtaining in a metropoli- 



THE MAN. 15 

tan city, undoubtedly exercised a potent influence over 
the life of young Satterlee. In the manifold activities 
of a large and highly organized city parish, situated in 
the very heart of the most densely populated region of 
New York, a thoughtful and observant boy such as 
he was, could not fail to find much to inspire him and 
quicken his susceptibilities. In his new home which 
was always a center of a wide church life, he would 
meet men distinguished in the ecclesiastical world; 
missionary bishops and clergymen prominent in the 
Church being frequent visitors at Calvary rectory. In 
listening to the conversation and discussions which 
went on about him, he could hardly fail to imbibe a 
general knowledge of ecclesiastical and missionary 
matters and have his interest in these things aroused 
and stimulated ; thus receiving unconsciously into his 
mind the pregnant ideas which determined his future 
career. 

Satterlee entered the Freshman Class of Columbia 
University, his father's Alma Mater, in 1886. The 
recurring attacks of rheumatism from which he suf- 
fered during this period, and which prevented his 
regular attendance upon his college course, made it 
impossible to take a high standing in scholarship, but 
he acquitted himself creditably and was graduated in 
due course with his class. While in college Satterlee 
entered fully into the social life of the institution, 
joining one of the Greek Letter Fraternities, and 
making many friends both within and without the 
Society. He indulged freely in all the legitimate 



i6 A FISHER OF MEN. 

amusements of his fellows, but had the reputation of 
never exceeding the limits of temperance and good 
behavior. 

One of the closest friends of his boyhood and col- 
lege years furnishes a frank description of Satterlee's 
characteristics as they appeared to his associates of 
this period : 

'*One thing characteristic of Churchill was his 
pleasure in helping others, which he always did in a 
way of his own, and no obstacle ever prevented him 
accomplishing his purpose. I remember his borrow- 
ing money to lend it to another to provide funds so 
that the other might study with a tutor. The man 
finally got through, mainly by the grace of the 
Faculty, it was said, but the man had very little grace 
to spare, and what he did have was obtained through 
the money he borrowed from Churchill, which 
Churchill did not himself have, but, ever resourceful, 
he obtained elsewhere. 

"Churchill was a financier and promoter, in so far 
as he might help or give pleasure to others. Even as 
a boy he was resourceful. When the lemons gave out 
at home and no lemonade could be procured, his 
father's postage stamps were converted into ginger 
ale and soda water at the nearest drug store for our 
enjoyment. 

"All sorts and conditions of fellows would come to 
Churchill while he was in college, and also in later 
years, when they were in trouble, and he helped them 
in some way or other, any little thing, from getting a 



THE MAN. 17 

bondsman when they were arrested, to going down to 
court after them. If they needed money, and he had 
none, he would allow them to pawn anything he had 
that was pawnable. In many instances he never heard 
of the article pawned, and often he was not even 
reimbursed with thanks, but still he trusted everyone 
who came to him, and everyone who knew him, no 
matter how slightly, trusted him. 

"Churchill was not a 'goody-goody' fellow. He 
liked a good time, and this, combined with his strength 
of character, v/hich in some cases almost amounted to 
obstinacy, he was so purposeful, made him loved by 
many and respected by all. These points are clearly 
characteristic of him; they emphasize certain phases 
of his personality which, perhaps, a good many may 
think vv'^ould better be passed over, but they are facts. 
In one case with which T was familiar, he was up 
nearly all night obtaining a bondsman for a student 
who belonged to another Fraternity. This student's 
friends, if they had felt so inclined, could easily have 
bailed him out, but did not lift a finger, while 
Churchill ran about town to get the bail, thus contract- 
ing a cold which compelled him to leave college and 
go South for several months." 

During successive summers Satterlee accompanied 
his family upon tours through Europe. Thus he 
visited repeatedly England, Spain, France, Switzer- 
land, Austria and Italy. He w^as privileged to visit 
Oberammergau twice, once while he was a boy of 
thirteen, and again in 1890 during the summer fol- 



i8 A FISHER OF MEN. 

lowing his graduation from college. He had lodgings 
on both occasions with the same family, members of 
which had parts in the Passion Play, and his impres- 
sions of its wonderful influence were strengthened by 
his consciousness of the genuine goodness and purity 
of the lives of those who participated in the produc- 
tion. The conjunction in them of religious devotion 
with a keen appreciation of the value of art in music 
and handicraft, was a matter he often spoke of with 
enthusiasm, and probably accounted for his marked 
predilection in after years for a rich and beautiful 
church service. 

When in England he was taken by his father to 
inspect Oxford House and other phases of Church 
work in East London, and he also attended with his 
father a retreat for the Clergy at Keble College, 
Oxford, conducted by Canon Grore. It is probable 
that these experiences had a determining effect upon 
his choice of a vocation. Up to this period his father 
had scrupulously refrained from making any sug- 
gestion to his son in regard to his future work, 
though, of course, Satterlee could hardly fail to real- 
ize the hopes his father cherished for him. 

Proof that he had given the matter of choosing 
a career full consideration before finally deciding to 
adopt the ministry, is clear. That he did not simply 
drift into it as following the line of least resistance, 
is apparent from the fact that he had seriously 
thought of going into business. 



THE MAN. 19 

The following letter from one of his intimate 
friends is illuminating on this point : 

''One day I asked Churchill why he went into the 
ministry. He said: T told my father soon after 
graduation that I had about decided to go into the 
real estate business. Instead of jumping up to con- 
gratulate me he just looked at me and said, 'I can 
picture you sitting in an office on the Avenue waiting 
for a customer to come in — and then ?' 

''I believe those two words — 'and then' — had a 
direct influence on his whole course of life thereafter. 
He felt that he was fitted for a higher calling and 
one more useful. Many times have I heard him tell 
the story of the worldly man who was being ques- 
tioned as to his ambitions in life, and after each goal 
of riches or pleasure had been reached the insatiable 
questioner would ask, 'and then?' until finally the 
man was forced to admit that after he had attained 
all his ambitions in this world, he would in reality be 
just where he started, having done no good to man- 
kind, as his aims were entirely selfish, or at least not 
directed towards things worth while." 

A letter from a friend of mature years, whom Sat- 
terlee often consulted, is similarly significant: 

"When Churchill was about leaving Columbia, we 
had a long talk with regard to his future. He had 
not fully decided what he would do. Someone had 
urged him to become a chemist. I did not think much 
of it, and suggested, that if he w^ould like to study 
law, I could help him. He said he thought he would 



20 A FISHER OF MEN. 

enter the ministry, but was not quite decided ; that he 
felt that his Hfe did not strictly belong to himself, 
which was one of the reasons why, before deciding, 
he desired to talk with his friends; that in the walk 
of life in which he felt he could be most useful to 
those about him, he would engage and do his best, 
whatever the results might be." 

Satterlee's father gives an account of an interview 
which he had with his son relative to the choice of 
his vocation in life. It was when the summer vaca- 
tion following his graduation from college was draw- 
ing to a close, during a sojourn in Lucerne. The two 
had gone for a walk in the fields, and were resting 
under a haystack. The subject was introduced by 
Dr. Satterlee, who said to his son : 

''So far you have made a creditable mark for your- 
self ; now that you have graduated from college, you 
must choose a profession — what are you going 
to be?" 

''Churchill replied : 'I don't know ; I don't think 
I am good for anything specially.' 

" 'What is your idea in life,' I said, 'to get or to 
give ?' 

"Churchill replied : 'Oh ! I've thought and decided 
about that long ago, I want to give all that I have to 
give; I want to be useful, of course, I want to help 
my Day to take its stand ; I want to be a builder of 
some kind, but I am not fitted to build up anything.' 

"I said, 'Build up the human body.' He responded, 
'1 never cared for surgery or medicine.' 



THE MAN. 21 

''I said, *Build up the sense of justice in the com- 
munity.' He repHed, *I am no orator : no dialectician, 
I am not fitted to be a lawyer.' 

"I said, ^Be an architect or a civil engineer.' The 
answer was, 'You know that I am neither a draughts- 
man on the one hand nor a mathematician on the 
other ; I am qualified for neither profession.' 

'*I then said, 'Be a character builder.' Churchill 
replied, 'How can I ? I am not qualified ! Anyway, 
how is this to be done?' I answered, 'The character 
builder in a village is the religious leader, who goes 
in and out among the people, and shows the butcher, 
the baker, the candle-stick maker, how, in pursuing 
their trades, to be better tradesmen, better citizens of 
the commonwealth, better Christians and more faith- 
ful witnesses for Jesus Christ, in their several call- 
ings ; who shows fathers and mothers that the Chris- 
tian family is the unit upon which Christian civiliza- 
tion is built up, and thus prepares the Avay for the 
coming of God's kingdom.' Churchill replied, 'Oh! 
if I only had the power to be such a character 
builder, I should gladly give my life to this work, but 
here again I have no qualifications for filling this 
sphere.' I begged him to stop and think, and 
reminded him of the influence he had exercised over 
others in his college life and his Fraternity, and 
over the friends who had been coming for the last 
eight years to our house. He made no reply and we 
walked quietly home. The next morning he an- 
nounced to us that he should sail for home a month 



2 2 A FISHER OF MEN. 

earlier than we had intended, for he wished to have 
a conference with Dean Hoffman and Dr. Dyer, with 
a view possibly to entering the General Seminary in 
the autumn. When we all demurred, saying that this 
would break up the family party and spoil the pleas- 
ure of our European trip, he replied, somewhat 
gruffly, 'Duty first — pleasure afterwards.' His one 
great dread seemed to be lest he should be influenced 
into entering the ministry without being really fitted 
for it. Now, when he was on the point of deciding 
through his own free will, it was a satisfaction for 
him to feel, that by thus sailing for America contrary 
to his own inclinations and our wishes, he was giving 
proof of his sincerity and independent choice. Two 
months from that time, on St. Matthew's Day, 1890, 
while Churchill was being matriculated as a student 
in the Seminary, we were in John Keble's church at 
Hursley, praying that God would bless him in the act 
and consecrate his whole future life in the ministry, 
as a faithful servant of Jesus Christ." 

Satterlee entered the General Theological Semi- 
nary in the autumn of the same year. He did not 
lodge in the Seminary dormitories, but continued to 
live at home, going back and forth for the lectures. 
He felt that his first duty was to throw all his energy 
and strength into his studies, and he, therefore, 
refrained from taking any active part in the work of 
Calvary Church. He realized that by nature he was 
more inclined to energetic and practical work than 
to books, and he conscientiously devoted himself to 



THE MAN. 23 

the study of theology. As the result of this persistent 
effort he now acquired habits of systematic reading 
which afterwards proved a constant safeguard to him 
in his life as a country rector. The only definite and 
regular work which he undertook in Calvary Church 
during this period was the training of the Auxiliary 
Choir. His natural shyness made him exceedingly 
reluctant to fill this position, but his sense of duty and 
his extreme fondness for music finally led him to 
accept. Under his leadership as organist and choir- 
master, a distinct improvement in the behavior of the 
choir members was noticeable. Though the young 
men and women composing the choir were many of 
them his most intimate friends, his enthusiasm enabled 
him to conquer his diffidence, and he learned to play 
the part of a strict disciplinarian. 

As at school and college, so also in the seminary, 
Satterlee made many friends and was a prime favorite 
with his classmates. He introduced them to his 
parents and made them free of the hospitality so lav- 
ishly dispensed at Calvary Rectory. 

A fellow seminarian, who, perhaps, knew him as 
intimately as any of his friends of that period, writes 
as follows in a letter addressed to Satterlee's mother : 

"Though I know that Churchill must have changed 
greatly from our Seminary days, developed in every 
way, intellectually and spiritually, I am confident he 
had not outgrown one of his chief characteristics, 
namely, his loyalty to those whom he honored with 
his friendship. 



24 A FISHER OF MEN. 

^Terhaps you have forgotten, if, indeed, you ever 
knew, what I said about him over ten years ago in a 
class poem which I wrote. I had my fling at the 
foibles and idiosyncracies of my classmates and pro- 
fessors. There was no intention of hurting or of 
leaving a sting behind, but I fancy in some cases there 
was a feeling that I had been pretty severe. There 
were one or two men whom I could not bring myself 
to say anything 'spicy' about, their characters were 
too simple and transparent to lend themselves to my 
satire, good humored as I meant it to be. 

''Here is what I said then about Churchill : 

" 'And here's a man, whose heart is true as 'Slt-eel, 
A statement this from which there's no appeal, 
Whose friends upon him always have a claim, 
Which he will honor, — Satterlee's his name.' 

'T can't remember precisely how it was Churchill 
and I first struck up our friendship. He was the 
younger by some years, and I think then, even for his 
age and although a graduate of college and what is 
called a man's man, singularly unsophisticated. Per- 
haps it was this quality which attracted me to him 
first. This, and the cordiality of his manner, together 
with the absolute lack of conceit w^hich marked him, 
served to draw me to him. I know that inside of a 
week after our first meeting, we found ourselves 
entering upon terms of great intimacy. He used to 
come to my room and leave his overcoat and hat and 
don the mortar-board and gown. I sat near him, 



THE MAN. 25 

generally next to him, in the class room. Shortly 
after the return from the country of the Rector of 
Calvary and his family, Churchill invited me over to 
lunch and made me acquainted with you all. 

"During the two years of my Seminary course our 
intimacy continued and our friendship increased. I 
suppose I saw more of Churchill than anyone else did. 
Churchill was a man the better you knew him, the 
more you liked him. He was a gentleman under all 
circumstances. I use the term in its fullest signifi- 
cance. I do not mean that he was merely well-bred, 
— that was to be expected, — ^but that he was a gentle- 
man, always considerate of the feelings of others. I 
never knew him to say anything unkind of anyone. 
He had an innate refinement that led him to detest 
whatever was vulgar. 

"While many of us shirked our Seminary duties, 
either out of constitutional laziness or because the 
teaching was not to our liking and we felt we could 
do better by following private reading, Churchill was 
a faithful student. I fancy he did not learn quickly, 
and that study was to him the hardest kind of work. 
Remember, I am speaking of him as I knew him a 
dozen years ago. I am quite prepared to believe what 
I have been told regarding the subsequent develop- 
ment of his capacities. I am not at all surprised to 
know of the important work he has been able to 
accomplish during the last few years. Had God 
spared his life I should have fully expected to see him 



26 A FISHER OF MEN. 

take his place among the leaders of the Church in 
this country." 

Satterlee was duly graduated from the Seminary 
with the Class of 1893, and was ordained to the 
diaconate with twenty or more of his classmates on 
Trinity Sunday, by Bishop Potter, in Calvary 
Church. He was to have been married on the fol- 
lowing Saturday, but owing to a severe attack of his 
old trouble, the wedding was postponed to June 15, 
when he was united in matrimony to Margaret Hum- 
bert, the youngest daughter of Pierre Humbert, Esq., 
of New York City. The marriage took place in Cal- 
vary Church, Satterlee's father officiating. He began 
his ministry the following September as a curate to 
the Rev. Dr. Battershall, Rector of St. Peter's 
Church, Albany. In Advent of that same year he 
was advanced to the priesthood by Bishop Doane* 
Shortly afterwards, owing to the failure of his wife's 
health, he was compelled to resign and go to Cali- 
fornia. The following entry appears in his diary, 
under date of January 7, 1894: "Celebrated for the 
first time the Holy Communion in St. John's Church, 
Los Angeles, with what feeling of trepidation and 
happiness." 

Satterlee offered his services for the winter to the 
Bishop of California, and was put in charge of the 
mission work at Ontario, besides doing duty at sev- 
eral other stations. 

His inability, for many months after his ordina- 
tion, to take any settled cure, owing to his wife's ill 



THE MAN. 27 

health, which obHged him to be in different parts of 
the country at different seasons of the year, was a 
great trial to him. But his work during this period 
if desultory, was often very effective. In the summer 
of 1894, he was appointed by Bishop Doane, minis- 
ter-in-charge of the mission at Lake Placid, where he 
held services in the hotel parlors. During this time 
the mission was thoroughly organized by him, a lot 
was given, a name was chosen, and a building fund 
amounting to $1,350 was raised. Thus, as the result 
of his efforts, St. Hubert's, afterwards a flourishing 
parish, owed its beginning to him. 

Subsequently, he had charge during the summer 
months of a little church on an island in Raquette 
Lake. Here he also did faithful work, going from 
place to place with his wife in their birch canoe, visit- 
ing the families of the Adirondack guides. As the 
result of these efforts he was able to present a class 
for Confirmation. Subsequently, during the years 
that he was rector of Grace Church, Morganton, he 
always took charge of some Mission Church during 
his summer vacation, serving for several seasons as 
minister-in-charge of the Chapel at Quogue, L. L 

An incident occurring about this time illustrating 
his spirit of knight-errantry, is worthy of mention. 
A poor woman of the neighborhood came to him 
with a pitiful story regarding her niece who had been 
engaged to marry a young farmer, but who subse- 
quently deserted her under very distressing circum- 
stances. Satterlee volunteered to act as peacemaker 



28 A FISHER OF MEN. 

between the two, and the next day undertook a jour- 
ney of several hundred miles, at his own expense, for 
the purpose of interviewing the man in question. 
Arriving at his destination, which was in an isolated 
community, Satterlee sent word to the young man, 
making known the purpose of his errand. In due 
time the young farmer appeared, accompanied by his 
two brothers, all armed with guns, evidently expect- 
ing trouble. As they approached him in this belliger- 
ent attitude, Satterlee smilingly held out his hand, 
remarking, ''I suppose I ought to have brought my 
gun too, but as I have forgotten to do so, suppose you 
put yours aside and let us sit down on these logs and 
talk over this matter in a friendly spirit." As the 
outcome of the conversation the yoimg man agreed 
to be guided by his advice, and the two jumped into 
the wagon and were driven to the rectory of the 
neighboring village, where the aunt and niece were 
awaiting the result of his intercession. The immedi- 
ate marriage of the pair followed. It is pleasant to 
record that the future life of the couple thus roman- 
tically brought together, amply justified Satterlee's 
intervention. 

In his devotional life Satterlee had to struggle hard 
against a natural disinclination to be systematic. He 
disliked long services and protracted prayers; the 
practical bent of his mind and his delight in bodily 
activity making it irksome to spend much time in daily 
devotions. Yet when he was at the Seminary he was 
conscientious in his attendance upon matins and 



THE MAN. 29 

evensong, and when he entered upon his clerical life 
he felt that he ought to read matins daily in private, 
even if the church doors were closed. When he and 
his father were together, or another clergyman was 
visiting him, he was constantly suggesting that they 
should say matins and evensong together. But often 
there were intervals of weeks when he discontinued 
the practice. Yet he was undoubtedly in the large 
sense, a praying man. As he said himself on one 
occasion to a dear friend who expressed surprise over 
the fact that he seemed to give so little time to his 
private devotions : "I say my prayers all during the 
day, at any time when I am walking or waiting to 
see anyone." It was also a custom of his to say the 
prayer for Missions at noon, and in cases where he 
could so arrange, he had the church bell rung at that 
hour. He never held a meeting of any kind without 
a prayer, even though it was only to talk over the 
plans for a new building. 

. The physical suffering of his early years and the 
natural seriousness of mind resulting from it, disci- 
plined his spirit and developed his will power, and 
he acquired the habit of religious cheerfulness. Said 
one of his parishioners : "I never received but one 
sharp rebuke from Mr. Satterlee, and that was soft- 
ened by an affectionate smile. It was when I was 
pouring out my troubles and trials into his ear. He 
answered quickly, almost sharply, 'Don't worry, it 
ahvays weakens.' " 

A member of his father's parish in New York, 



30 A FISHER OF MEN. 

in speaking of a sermon that Satterlee preached in 
Calvary Church soon after his ordination, writes as 
follows : 

"With all the diffidence and inexperience against 
which a young preacher must have to contend, com- 
bined with the fact that he was in his father's pulpit, 
'a prophet, as it were, in his own country,' before a 
congregation among whom as a lad he had gone in 
and out, he stood unembarrassed. Speaking very 
modestly, and quietly, of well known truths, he sud- 
denly raised hand and voice, and almost shouted out, 
'Take up your cross, don't drag it, the Master meant 
that you should carry it, and He shares the weight 
with you/ As I look back upon the past, and realize 
how, during so many years, these words have rung 
through my own heart and life, from time to time, 
even in his very tones, — I feel indebted to him for 
the watchword. Thus early did he give indications 
of the keynote of all his subsequent work, never 
sparing himself, but always strong in the blessing 
and help of the Master." 

This was Satterlee's first sermon, and was preached 
from the text, Gal. vi. 17, "From henceforth let no 
man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of 
the Lord Jesus." His interpretation of the text was, 
that the marks of the Lord Jesus meant that the 
vision of Christ had scorched the Apostle's eyesight, 
and that the pain of this thorn in the flesh, was the 
constant cross that he had to bear in his physical 
frame for Christ. The memory of his own bodily 



THE MAN. 31 

sufferings, the consequent trials of a broken up and 
desultory life, his present anxiety over his wife's ill 
health, were undoubtedly vividly present at that time 
in his thoughts, and probably gave his words a force 
and significance which seldom attach themselves to 
the utterances of a young and inexperienced preacher. 

A result of these sufferings through which Sat- 
terlee passed was, that they brought out in him to an 
unusual degree the power of human sympathy. He 
seemed to anticipate almost what sufferers would say 
to him, and in reply to speak the very word of help 
that they most needed. 

He inherited from his mother the gift of entering 
into the lives of others through the intuitive reach- 
ings out of his sympathy, and because he thus shared 
their burdens, men and women learned to lean on 
him, and expect help from him. This, in turn, called 
forth his power of self-sacrifice. As the foundations 
of his life grew deeper and rested more strongly on 
God, he was able to comfort others with the comfort 
wherewith he himself had been comforted of God. 

The bond of union existing between mother and 
son was unusually close and tender. If the affection 
she felt for him constituted the main interest of her 
life, and found expression always in the most earnest 
solicitude for his comfort and well-being, the 
response he made was no less sincere and sympa- 
thetic. If his companionship was her chief delight, 
he never failed to pay her the tribute of his perfect 
confidence. From his boyhood days all through the 



32 A FISHER OF MEN. 

years of his ministry, he made her acquainted with 
all his plans and projects. He was never satisfied 
unless she shared his pleasures, and when they were 
separated correspondence between them was frequent 
and regular. She was his model for a clergyman's 
wife in her tact and sympathy and in the generous 
hospitality she extended to her husband's parishion- 
ers, making even the humblest feel that a cordial 
welcome awaited him at the Rectory. 

After Satterlee's ordination, especially after he 
went to Morganton, he became remarkably robust. 
His personal appearance was striking, particularly so 
as he grew older. He was nearly six feet four inches 
in height and broad in proportion. He had a finely 
shaped head and regular features. His eyes were 
dark and expressive. He had a rich strong voice, 
and read the service impressively. Though he lacked 
the conventional graces of oratory, his evident sin- 
cerity and earnestness always caused him to be lis- 
tened to with interest. 



CHAPTER IL 

GRACE CHURCH, MORGANTON. 

Mrs. Satterlee's continued ill health and the 
physician's advice to remove her to a drier air and 
a more salubrious locality, determined her husband 
to take immediate steps to find permanent work. 
Accordingly, he wrote to several bishops whose jur- 
isdictions comprised sections favorable to the neces- 
sities of his case. Bishop Cheshire, of North Caro- 
lina, to whom he was personally known, promptly 
responded and suggested Morganton, a small town 
in the mountain regions of his diocese, as a place 
answering the purpose. A call from the vestry of 
Grace Church, to whom his name had been presented 
by the Bishop, followed quickly. With his usual 
impetuosity Satterlee was for immediately accepting 
the call. But his father was unwilling that any defi- 
nite answer should be given before making a personal 
visit and investigating the conditions. As Satterlee 
himself was unable to go, owning to the state of his 
wife's health, his father, without saying anything to 
his son, took a train and went to Morganton. On 
his arrival there, as the hotel accommodations were* 
of a somewhat primitive kind, he went to a private 

33 



34 A FISHER OF MEN. 

boarding house, which turned out to be kept by a 
lady who was a parishioner of the church. Without 
giving her any ckie to his identity he proceeded to 
make some inquiries in regard to the parish. She 
informed him that the vestry had just called a Mr. 
''Larabee" from the North, and expressed her opin- 
ion that he would never do. They had never had a 
Northern man, she said, and she was afraid there 
w^ould be trouble, as he would not understand them 
or they him. 

The Civil War with .the sectional animosities it 
had aroused and the bitter memories it had left, evi- 
dently made the thought of a pastor from the North 
repugnant to her mind. Doubtless the isolated char- 
acter of the place and the little intercourse which the 
inhabitants of this section had had with Northern 
people were accountable for this feeling, and had 
stereotyped a prejudice which elsewhere in the South 
where communication was freer and the commercial 
and social relations closer was tending to disappear. 
However, when Dr. Satterlee informed her that it 
was his son whom the vestry had called, she exhib- 
ited the traditional kindness and courtesy of the 
genial Southern nature, and was profuse in her 
apologies. 

The parish at this time was in a most unsettled 
condition. The former rector, who was still occupy- 
ing the rectory, had been practically forced to resign 
his charge owing to his eccentricities and his inability 
to "get on'' with the people. The parishioners had 



MORGANTON. 35 

built and nearly paid for a new stone church, but the 
rector on account of some whim refused to hold ser- 
vices in it. Dr. Satterlee called upon him and lis- 
tened to a fierce diatribe directed against the vestry 
and members of the congregation generally. He 
also met and interviewed several members of the 
vestry, and, as he afterward told his son, the fact 
that they had studiously refrained from saying any- 
thing derogatory to the rector, convinced him that 
the fault did not lie at their doors. The rector, it 
might be stated, had been a Baptist preacher before 
taking orders in the Church ; subsequently in turn he 
relinquished its ministry and became a Methodist 
circuit rider. 

On his return Dr. Satterlee found his son in a state 
of great chagrin over the fact that his father had 
undertaken the journey without consulting him. It 
was characteristic of Satterlee's nature to resent what 
he considered any undue interference with his affairs 
on the part of his family. He always desired to set- 
tle matters for himself, to feel that his decisions were 
the result of his own initiative, and not in any sense 
due to others. It was not that he resented friendly 
counsel but that he had a distaste of anything that 
looked like ''coddling" or making things easy for 
him. Devoted as he knew his father to be to his 
interests and much as he appreciated his good sense 
and the strength of his coimsel, he seldom asked his 
advice and never looked to him for assistance in 
troubles or problems connected wnth the work of his 



36 A FISHER OF MEN. 

ministry. He would freely go to others whom he 
deemed willing and capable of giving advice, but he 
seems to have shrunk from carrying his burdens to 
those nearest to him by the tie of blood. He felt pos- 
sibly, that their love for him would be apt to bias 
their judgment, that their desire to relieve him would 
in some way imperil his virility or tend to swerve 
him from following the path which he had mapped 
out for himself. 

Dr. Satterlee, after detailing the conditions which 
he had found in Morganton, advised his son to accept 
the rectorship. Satterlee accordingly wrote to the 
vestry accepting the call, and soon afterwards took 
his departure for his new field, entering upon his 
work there early in September, 1894. 

Morganton, which is situated in the northwestern 
portion of the State of North Carolina on a plateau 
lying between the Blue Ridge and the South Moun- 
tains, was then a town of about two thousand inhabi- 
tants. The county seat of Burke County, it contains 
the Court House and Jail, and also several State 
institutions, including the Hospital for the Insane 
and the Deaf and Dumb Asylum. There are several 
small manufacturing concerns in the village and a 
large tannery, but the main interests of the place are 
agricultural. The surrounding farms are owned 
mainly by small proprietors. Along the river bot- 
toms the soil is exceedingly fertile, but otherwise it 
is poor, and especially in the region of the mountains 
yields a meagre return to the efforts of the primitive 



MORGANTON. 37 

people who inhabit this section. These mountain 
folk are a peculiar people, living apart by themselves 
and almost wholly untouched by the tide of progress 
and civilization. As Satterlee's work among these 
people comprises the most interesting and picturesque 
side of his missionary labors, a description of their 
unique characteristics and habits is reserved for a 
subsequent chapter, when the story will be told in 
detail. 

The people in Morganton are, probably, fairly 
representative of those who may be found in any 
small Southern town. Besides the negro population 
and the mechanic and small tradesmen class, there is 
a sprinkling of the old "'aristocratic" element, de- 
scended from the ante-bellum planters and slave 
owners, financially ruined by the war. These people 
have bravely accepted the situation and are now 
employed in retrieving their fallen fortunes by engag- 
ing in professional and mercantile pursuits and in 
working their farms. This class, though lacking 
many of the educational and other advantages which 
wealth gives, has jealously preserved the traditions 
of gentle breeding and displays fine social and relig- 
ious instincts. In no part of the United States are to 
be found better representatives of a genuine if 
somewhat old-fashioned "aristocracy.'' 

It was mainly people of this class that composed 
the congregation of Grace Church, and to whose 
homes and hearts the young clergyman from the 
North and his delicate, fragile wife were now warmly 



38 A FISHER OF MEN. 

made welcome. If at first there was an apprehension 
on the part of some of the parishioners that the new 
rector, whose Hfe had hitherto been spent in and 
around the metropoHtan city of New York, and who 
had been accustomed to enjoy all the advantages and 
luxurious accessories of a wealthy and cultivated 
society, should find himself unable to accept the con- 
ditions of life in a little Southern village, — such 
apprehension was soon dispelled. The frank hearty 
manner in which he met their advances and the per- 
fect simplicity of his bearing and character, at once 
disarmed suspicion and won an immediate place for 
him in their affections. Satterlee as a Northern man, 
w^hile never disguising his sentiments, was always 
punctilious in refraining from utterances which 
might wound the political susceptibilities of his par- 
ishioners. As one of the members of his parish 
remarked to the writer, ''We never could have 
believed that we could love a Northern man, but Mr. 
Satterlee somehow never seemed to us to be one. We 
really got to think of him as quite one of ourselves." 
A distinguished Southern clergyman, now domi- 
ciled in the North, who knew Satterlee intimately 
and was familiar with his work in both of his South- 
ern parishes, stated his conviction that Satterlee's 
success in his work among Southern people was little 
short of marvellous. "I am a Southern man," he 
said, "and I know the Southern people, and I do not 
imderstand how a Northern man was able to accom- 
plish such results." 



MORGANTON. 39 

But perhaps after all, there was nothing really 
remarkable about the matter, and the simple explana- 
tion is to be found in the fact that Satterlee possessed 
that distinguishing trait of the gentleman, which 
some one has designated as the "unwillingness to 
give pain to others." "He was a gentleman,'' said 
one of the oldest members of his parish, himself a 
fine representative of the old regime, "and we are 
gentlemen, and we both appreciated our mutual obli- 
gations." 

The rectory was an old building containing only 
three rooms, and badly out of repair. Satterlee was 
compelled to rent a house until a new one could be 
built. He offered to raise among his friends in the 
North a certain proportion of the money necessary 
to defraying the cost of a new rectory, and the people 
promised to provide the remainder. The following 
March a house costing about $1,500 was built and 
paid for and was immediately occupied by the rector 
and his wife. 

Satterlee' s first endeavor was to build up the parish 
organization and to improve the services. The par- 
ish hitherto had been quite content to go on the even 
tenor of its way, living its ow^n little exclusive life 
and satisfied to provide a religious home merely for its 
own members. Little if any effort had been made to 
draw in others from outside. As one of the members 
phrased it, "Until Mr. Satterlee came we were an 
exclusive religious club, and rather prided ourselves 
upon the fact." But this was not Satterlee's notion 



40 A FISHER OF MEN. 

of parish obligations. The other Christian bodies 
represented in the community were the Presbyter- 
ians, the Methodists and the Baptists. There was no 
Roman CathoHc Church, indeed, it is said, that there 
were only four Roman Catholics in the whole town. 
But as in every other place so in Morganton, there 
were not a few who had no religious affiliation. It 
was these shepherdless sheep that he sought to draw 
into his fold. It was by getting the children that he 
felt he could best win their parents. Accordingly, he 
devoted his first efforts to increasing the Sunday- 
school. He introduced a vested boy choir as soon as 
he was able to do so, and thus got hold of a growing 
contingent of lads, many of whom had previously 
had no connection with the parish. He trained them 
himself. Later on he formed these lads and others 
like them into a Junior Branch of the Brotherhood of 
St. Andrew, arid found appropriate work for them to 
do. The Sunday-school, which previously had been 
small in numbers, began to grow rapidly. He re- 
cruited scholars wherever he was able to do so with- 
out seeking to draw them away from the religious 
body to which they were attached. Probably one of 
the reasons for the great respect and friendliness 
which those belonging to other Christian bodies felt 
for him was to be found in the fact that he made no 
efforts to proselytize from their ranks. It was not 
that he depreciated in any degree the claims and 
advantages of the Communion to which he belonged 
or underestimated its catholic character, but rather 



MORGANTON. 41 

that he felt there was a sufficient missionary work 
for him to do in gathering in those who owned no 
rehgious attachment. But if he did not seek to press 
home upon members of other rehgious bodies the 
exclusive claims of the Church, he certainly let no 
opportunity slip for showing his personal interest in 
any who he thought might need his help, regardless 
of their ecclesiastical predilections. As a minister of 
Christ and a true fisher of men, Satterlee read his 
commission largely and was ever ready to extend his 
sympathy to all sorts and conditions of men. 

The story is told of his paying a visit to a certain 
woman of Methodist antecedents whose husband was 
lying seriously ill. At the close of the interview the 
woman informed him that she proposed sending her 
children to the Sunday-school of Grace Church. 
Some of her Methodist neighbors who had been 
made aware of his visit to her, and who entertained 
a lurking suspicion regarding the disinterestedness 
of his motives in visiting her, ventured to intimate 
their doubts. 

"I reckon that Episcopal preacher is a'trying to 
proselyte you," remarked one of these callers. 

" 'Tisn't so," was the indignant rejoinder. "I've 
been here over three years now and no preacher but 
Mr. Satterlee has ever darkened my doors." 

It is needless to say the "Episcopal preacher" got 
that family for good and all. 

Notwithstanding numerous incidents of this char- 
acter, there was not only no jealousy of Satterlee' s 



42 A FISHER OF MEN. 

influence, but evidence of the warmest personal 
regard for him on the part of members of the other 
Christian bodies. Indeed, so naturally and unob- 
trusively did he go about his Master's work, and so 
little was there in his nature of sectarian aggression, 
that people seemed quite to forget that he represented 
a different religious body from that to which they 
yielded allegiance. 

As one woman was heard to remark when the news 
of his death reached her, "I did not belong to his 
Church, but somehow I felt that he belonged to me. 
He never made you think that you belonged to 
another Church/' 

Indeed, a prominent member of the Presbyterian 
Church, speaking of their new pastor and desiring to 
give an Episcopalian friend an idea of the kind of 
man he was, said, '*He is a regular Satterlee." 
Apparently this was the highest encomium he could 
pass upon him. 

There is one advantage of ministering in a small 
community, of which Satterlee fully availed himself, 
namely, the opportunity of cultivating close and 
friendly relations with those outside of his immediate 
parochial circle. He constituted himself the pastor 
of all who had no definite church relationship and 
many are the stories told regarding his success in 
capturing those who had hitherto resisted all attempts 
to land them within the meshes of the Gospel net. 

One individual in particular, known as the '*bad 
man" of the community, who had in times past killed 



MORGANTON. 43 

his man and whose recklessness and desperate char- 
acter caused him to be feared and shunned by all, was 
so won over by Satterlee's kindness that a noticeable 
change occurred in his habits and disposition. Peo- 
ple saw and remarked the effect of the new influence 
which had come into his life. Having doggedly 
withstood all overtures looking to the religious train- 
ing of his children by permitting them to attend a 
Sunday-school, he finally, at Satterlee's solicitation, 
gave his consent to their enrollment, and later on to 
their baptism. As for himself he could not be per- 
suaded to enter the church, but his personal relations 
with the rector were of a most friendly nature. He 
was a giant in stature, and when under the influence 
of liquor disposed to be quarrelsome, but there was a 
chord in his nature which Satterlee was able to touch 
and which quickly responded to the brotherly sym- 
pathy of the young clergyman. Perhaps it was the 
virile quality which both possessed equally which 
drew them to each other. Perhaps it was the perfect 
simplicity of Satterlee's character, a simplicity appar- 
ent to the most casual observer. The secret affinity 
which two characters, seemingly utterly diverse, are 
conscious of feeling for each other defies analysis. 
The parties themselves are incapable of explaining it. 
The bond exists and that is all that can be said. The 
sequel to the story is a tragic one. Subseqeunt to 
Satterlee's removal from Morganton this man, whose 
reformation, partial at least, was certainly due to 
Satterlee's influence over him, was shot dead on his 



44 A FISHER OF MEN. 

reappearance in the town after an absence of some 
months. It appears that he himself was unarmed, 
and, so far as anyone knew, was not seeking any 
quarrel with his slayer, wdio gave as his reason for 
his cowardly action that he was afraid that the other 
intended to kill him. The affair at the time was 
regarded in the community as a cowardly murder, 
though the slayer, ow^ng to the prevailing laxity of 
the law in this section, escaped all punishment. The 
murdered man as he lay dying, declared that he had 
no evil intentions against his slayer. ''Search me, 
boys," he said to those who had gathered about him, 
'"you will find I have no gun." His last request was 
that his little children might be brought to him that 
he might kiss them before he died. His grief- 
stricken widow in bemoaning her loss repeatedly 
said, ''Oh, if only Mr. Satterlee had been here," the 
thought evidently being in her mind that he might 
have done something to comfort her husband in his 
last agony. But the only man who had ever been 
able to tame his fierce nature and give him a glimpse 
of better things was far away ! 

Satterlee's influence over men was one of the 
distinguishing gifts of his personality. He was able 
to attract them and attach them to himself in the 
bond of a strong friendship. It had been so from 
his earliest youth. He was liked by all sorts and 
kinds of men. 

In his pastoral work he still preserved in a great 
degree the spirit of bonhomie which had character-- 



MORGANTON. 45 

ized his associations with his boy friends and college 
chums. If he never forgot that he was the pastor 
and spiritual guide of the men of his flock and they 
rightfully looked to him for an example of high 
ideals and lofty living, he nevertheless refused to 
isolate himself from them by the assumption of any 
professional aloofness or pseudo-sacerdotal exclusive- 
ness. If he w^as a priest, he was first of all a man. 
If he was the pastor he was also the friend and bon 
camarade. The many letters that were received 
after his death from men with whom he had been 
associated are illuminating upon this point. One 
writes : 

^^His presence was a reproach to me in the night 
watches when I had done wrong, and this was but 
part of the whole effect his life had on mine." 

Another in a private letter addressed to a friend 
and evidently written out of the fulness of his heart, 
gives utterance to the w^eight of obligation under 
which he felt himself to be placed for Satterlee's 
assistance and sympathy extended to him during a 
spiritual crisis: 

"Yours just to hand, and it was the first news I 
had of Mr. Satterlee's death. It is indeed a great 
blow to me, for I had learned to love him as a father. 
The Church has lost a priest, the community a rector, 
and the world one of its best men whose life was a 
living sacrifice for those whom he loved, — and he 
loved all men. You ask me to write a tribute to him. 
I cannot. There are no words in my mean vocabu- 



46 A FISHER OF MEN. 

lary that will come to the rescue of my thoughts and 
feelings. If I said half of what I believe of him, 
the world would think me extravagant, therefore, let 
it be unsaid. There is one scene in my life I will 
never forget, and the remembrance of it will ever be 
with me as a sweet comforter, even if I be in hell. It 
was with him. I had made a confession to him and 
was waiting to hear what he had to say; the tears 
were rolling down my cheeks and his, until finally he 
smiled through his tears and putting his arm around 
me said: 'Brace up, old boy, God loves you more 
now than ever, because you need Him more.' I tell 

you, X , that sentence has lingered in my mind 

ever since. It taught me more Christianity than I 
had learned during my whole life. I realized more 
than ever before what I had often heard with my 
ears only, that God is love. It is hard to realize that 
he is gone, in fact, I don't feel that he is gone. I can 
still feel him with me, and, in fact, he seems nearer 
to me than ever before. I believe that he is looking 
down upon me this instant, and perhaps is trying to 
tell me something that I ought to know. I can now 
understand how the Roman Catholics can pray to the 
saints, for I believe he would hear me if I prayed to 
him." 

Still another parishioner writes : 

''I loved him, and I feel deeply and gratefully his 
personal influence. In him I thought I saw 'the 
beauty of holiness,' and he drew me, softly but 
strongly toward the better life. I loved to co- 



MORGANTON. 47 

operate with his work, because I always felt that 
co-operation with him brought blessing to myself. 
In his death I now feel that a light has gone out of 
my own life; yet I earnestly hope that the influence 
of his friendship and example may long abide with 
me." 

A prominent member of the Diocesan Council of 
the Brotherhood of St. Andrew belonging to another 
parish in the diocese, writes : 

''I am fully aware that the sorrow I feel, should 
not be even mentioned along with your grief, but I 
feel that yours will not be harder to bear for know- 
ing how very much his being called away means to 
so many of us men who had gotten into the habit of 
looking to him, and pointing to him as an ensample 
of a godly life. For myself I have been deeply 
moved, much more than I could tell you." 

The tributes to Satterlee's influence over the men 
with whom he came in contact might be multiplied, 
but these examples will serve to show how deep that 
influence w^as. They are introduced at this stage in 
the narrative rather than reserved until a subsequent 
period, because much of the work which he was able 
to accomplish cannot be understood apart from the 
fact of his ability to interest men in his projects and 
inspire them with a measure of his own missionary 
spirit. 

In August, 1895, less than one year after Satter- 
lee's acceptance of the rectorship of the parish, the 
new church, the mortgage debt having been paid. 



48 A FISHER OF MEN. 

was duly consecrated by the Bishop of the diocese, 
and the rector and congregation had the pleasure of 
worshipping in an edifice free from all encumbrance. 
The church, a pretty stone building seating about 
four hundred people, was complete in all details 
excepting as to an organ. The style of architecture 
was pleasing and the building in every sense appro- 
priate to the needs of a village congregation. 

Mrs. Satterlee's health had not improved to the 
degree that had been expected as the result of the 
change of climate. Her husband had taken her to 
Thomasville, Ga., early in January, 1895, in the hope 
that the milder climate of that well-known health 
resort might prove beneficial. She returned to Mor- 
ganton in March, little if any better, and it soon 
became apparent to her husband that her days were 
numbered. In the following September he took her 
to New York where she died at the home of her 
father two months later, November the third. 

The motive that had led him to accept work in 
Morganton had now ceased to operate and the ques- 
tion of his return thither and the permanent continu- 
ation of his labors in that field came up for consider- 
ation. The members of his family were anxious 
that he should settle himself in some place in closer 
proximity to themselves. His father, then rector of 
Calvary Church, New York, refrained from offering 
any advice upon the matter. But members of his 
vestry came to him and strongly urged that he should 
retain his son in the capacity of an assistant. The 



MORGANTON. 49 

position happened to be vacant just at that time, and 
the vestry stated their belief that ''ChurchilF' would 
fill it acceptably. Dr. Satterlee broached the matter 
to his son, stating that the suggestion had emanated 
absolutely from the vestry, and, that while the idea 
was gratifying to him, he should never himself have 
dreamed of such a thing as mentioning it. Satterlee, 
although deeply touched by the compliment paid him 
by those who had known him from boyhood, and 
realizing that his rejection of the offer would be a 
keen disappointment to his family, yet felt obliged ta 
decline. The work in Morganton he felt was his^ 
own, the prospects of future usefulness were great,, 
and thus, notwithstanding his natural desire to enjoy 
the companionship of his family and old friends and 
the advantages of city life, he concluded that it was 
his duty to return to Morganton and continue his 
labors there. 

The question may well be asked, did Satterlee 
regard his life in that little Southern town so far 
removed from his family and friends and lacking 
almost all the social and intellectual advantages to 
which he was accustomed, in the light of a sacrifice? 
Others certainly did. But for himself there is not 
the slightest doubt that he cherished no such idea. 
He was conscious of an intense joy in his work. No 
one ever heard him complain of the hardness of his 
lot, or express any wish for a more conspicuous 
field for his ministrations. Besides the opportunity 
afi^orded him of going to Calvary at a salary double 



so A FISHER OF MEN. 

that which he received at Morganton, he had as time 
went on other calls to important parishes, but he put 
them all aside, perfectly satisfied to remain in the 
little remote village among the North Carolina moun- 
tains. As evidence of Satterlee's contentment with 
his humble position as rector of Morganton, the fol- 
lowing extract from a letter written after his death 
by an influential friend of his living in the suburbs 
of New York City, is submitted : 

''Some years ago there were two or three parishes 
vacant in this part of the country, and as I knew 
some of the people I thought they might listen to 
suggestions from me as to the rector whom they 
should call. I wrote to Churchill (he was at Mor- 
ganton then), asking him if he would like to come 
this way again. He replied, he thought his health 
required that he live in the mountains, but disregard- 
ing that, he must stand by the work that came to 
him, that he was not ambitious in a worldly sense, 
but very anxious to do well and faithfully what he 
found before him, and that the situation in which he 
was placed, quite satisfied him in that respect." 

When, after a rectorship of six years he finally 
accepted the call to Columbia, he was confronted by 
considerations of so urgent a nature that he did not 
feel he could conscientiously refuse to go. To state 
these now would be to anticipate events. 

Satterlee returned to Morganton and resumed his 
duties in December, a month after his wife's death. 
A young man between whose familv and his own 



MORGANTON. 51 

there existed a warm attachment and in whom Sat- 
terlee, for his own sake, took a deep interest, volun- 
teered to accompany him. to Morganton as a com- 
panion. Satterlee gladly accepted the offer, and the 
two men lived together in the rectory until the fol- 
lowing spring. 

Satterlee's nature was a thoroughly sociable one. 
He disliked being alone and he always managed 
during the years that he spent in Morganton subse- 
quent to the death of his first wife and before his 
second marriage, to have some friend staying with 
him. This arrangement frequently served a double 
purpose, it provided Satterlee with a companion in 
his home and w^as also the means of bringing the 
visitor under influences tending to his betterment 
physically and morally. vSatterlee had a very tender 
spot in his heart for young men who semed to be 
deficient in the will pov^er to resist temptation. The 
following letter written by a gentleman in New York, 
a personal friend whom he often consulted in regard 
to such cases because of his wide experience and 
great success in dealing with them, is interesting in 
that it contains an extract from one vv^ritten by Sat- 
terlee to him bearing upon this very matter. The 
communication is addressed to Satterlee's father : 

'^Among a few things which I find here, is a letter 
written to me from Paris in August, 1896. It is not 
a long letter and in itself is unimportant, but in 

response to it, I sent X (about, whom it was 

written), to Montreal. After I had done this and on 



52 A FISHER OF MEN. 

the 6th of September following, I wrote to Churchill, 
saying that what I had done was experimental ; that 
it depended a good deal upon X — — himself, that I 
had had some stubborn fights with people to make 
them keep straight, but that I hoped for the best, and 
I added, 'But the weary hours that I have spent over 
people almost discouraged one day, cheered the next ; 
and finally seeing them emerge strong, accomplished 
and self-reliant, has perhaps made me believe, that 
almost any man with ordinary docility can be brought 
to his level, whatever it may be/ 

''I find fastened to the copy of this letter, this 
'Extract from letter of C. S. in reply to mine of Sept. 
lo, 1896.' 

'* 'I fully share the sentiments of your letter; it is 
discouraging indeed to carry a load, and have those 
for whose benefit you are bearing it, unappreciative, 
indifferent, almost obstructive, but I firmly believe, 
that under such circumstances, perseverance, courage, 
patient endurance, whether they lead to success or 
not, mark the brightest and most admirable points of 
a Christian life.' " 

There are many stories current in Morganton 
regarding Satterlee's kind-heartedness to the poorer 
members of his flock. A colored man, who had once 
acted as sexton of the church, fell ill, and was regu- 
larly visited by the rector. Calling one evening, Sat- 
terlee found the wife thoroughly worn out from lack 
of sleep due to a long vigil. Noting her exhaustion, 
he told her that she would better go to bed and leave 



MORGANTON. 53 

him to watch over her husband. After much per- 
suasion she finally consented, and he remained until 
the next morning. In relating the incident after- 
wards to one of the ladies belonging to the parish, 
for Satterlee, of course, never mentioned the matter, 
she said, "He's the bestest white man I ever knowed.'' 

Here is an incident illustrative of his shrewdness 
in dealing with human nature. Satterlee had in his 
employ a colored boy, John, as a sort of man-of-all- 
work. On several occasions provisions were missed 
from the storeroom and suspicion lighted upon John 
as the guilty party. Satterlee, accordingly, called 
the boy into his study, and without accusing him of 
the theft frankly told him that certain articles were 
missing and asked if he knew anything about the 
matter. John denied emphatically that he had any 
hand in their disappearance. Though morally cer- 
tain that he was lying, Satterlee pressed the matter 
no farther, but simply asked him to kneel down and 
say a prayer with him. The following day John 
returned and made a full confession that it was he 
who had done the purloining. 'Tf Mr. Satterlee had 
whipt me," said he in speaking of the affair to an 
acquaintance, "I wouldn't have minded, but when he 
just prayed with me, I felt so mean that I just had 
to go and confess." 

A friend of Satterlee's from the North, who spent 
some time with him in Morganton and closely 
observed his work there, furnishes the following dis- 
criminating account of his methods and describes the 



54 A FISHER OF MEN. 

influence of his personality upon his parishioners and 
the community at large. 

"Satterlee wanted a share of every man's work to 
count for the Church, and it seems to me that was 
the keynote of his ministry at Morganton. The great 
success of that ministry every one knows. It had its 
beginnings in his getting right at the people both in 
parish church and mission chapel, and asking, 'What 
are we here for, and are we doing what we are here 
for in accordance with the mind of Christ?' Satter- 
lee's work began where many another's has left off. 
Instead of going back to his study to write a sermon 
for the next Sunday, he would stay out among the 
people whom he had set thinking (many doubtless 
for the first time in their lives) and follow up the 
argument with each one individually as circum- 
stances permitted. He never let a chance go by to 
speak to anyone with whom he came in contact, but 
he never thrust- himself upon one; rather men were 
drawn towards him by his personal magnetism. Once 
he had spoken, an interest was kindled in the rough- 
est nature which lasted until friendship took its place, 
not merely personal friendship, but that which in 
many cases led to union with the Church. 

"I heard Satterlee once say, that he thought a min- 
ister of the Episcopal Church ought to be and had an 
opportunity to be the most influential man in a com- 
munity. That whatever of honor and attainment 
attached to other professions so much and more 
besides was in the grasp of the clergyman to be 



MORGANTON. 55 

* 

wielded as a power for good, if he only would appre- 
ciate it. He said that one of his greatest joys would 
be to see the Episcopal Church take its place as the 
National Church in this country, and that this could 
only be brought about by the best educated men going 
into the ministry and building up weak communities. 
Whether Satterlee appreciated it or not, the fact is, 
he was far and away the most influential man in his 
community. 

''x\t Morganton he took hold of a parish that had 
been quietly drifting. With his great ability as an 
organizer he soon gathered up the loose ends, started 
all the machinery of a well established church plant, 
organized the Brotherhood, assembled the guilds, 
founded outlying missions, all at what great personal 
effort and sacrifice only those who have seen the work 
going on know. His tireless energy soon accom- 
plished results wdiich would have satisfied most men. 
But with Satterlee to carry on the routine work of a 
live parish was not enough. He made the people 
realize that they themselves constituted the parish, 
were an integral part of the jurisdiction of the 
Church, and that they must look beyond their own 
narrow boundaries and take their share of the 
responsibilities of the Church at large. This he 
brought about almost unconsciously by the direct 
influence of his own interest in foreign as well as 
domestic affairs. 

"Deeply as he was engaged in the work of his own 
parish, he nevertheless kept abreast of all that was 



56 A FISHER OF MEN. 

going on in the Church outside. I have seen him 
walk up the street from the post office with three or 
four laymen reading aloud to them news of the Gen- 
eral Convention at Washington; and when the 
divorce question was being argued the general dis- 
cussions which took place on the piazza upon the 
receipt of the newspapers just before dinner, were 
quite alarming in length to those whose appetites 
were well sharpened. 

''Satterlee's interest in the affairs of the day was 
no less broad, especially in politics and law. At one 
time we took our meals at the house of the postmas- 
ter. Morganton being an important point in western 
North Carolina, we had an opportunity to meet there 
many politicians, lawyers and travellers. One day it 
would be the junior United States Senator, another, 
the general attorney for the Southern Railway, and 
on another occasion the Governor of the State, to 
say nothing of lesser lights. The conversations on 
various subjects which took place in free Southern 
manner under these circumstances, were most enjoy- 
able, and at such times Satterlee showed his extreme 
breadth of view, being a moderate talker, a good 
listener, and always ready to tell his story in turn. 

''Another thing which had a direct bearing on his 
influence in the community was the fact that being 
among Southerners, he did not just settle down in 
Morganton and break off all connections with his 
home and friends in the North. He never forgot his 
old friends and associations, and when vacation time 



MORGANTON. 57 

came, he was ready and anxious to drop work and go 
North again. The people had a much greater respect 
for him to feel that he was taking part in affairs out- 
side their own narrow circle, and were all the more 
glad to welcome him back. I have often noticed how 
proud his parishioners were to have a man so broad- 
minded and a Northern man as their rector.'' 



CHAPTER III. 

A COUNTRY PARISH AT WORK. 

Satterlee's intimate knowledge of the working 
of parochial machinery which he had acquired during 
his many years' experience in Calvary Church, now 
stood him in good stead, and he proceeded to organ- 
ize the forces of his little country parish for effective 
work. It is probable that he inherited in a large 
measure the gift of organizing ability which his 
father so conspicuously displayed. But it is one 
thing to develop the life of a city parish where the 
material lies ready to hand and where the parochial 
rivalry engendered by the proximity of competing 
churches is acute and pressing, and quite another 
thing to create out of the rawest of raw material the 
agencies for effective work, and muster and direct 
forces which hitherto have never been employed in 
such capacities. In both cases it is, of course, requi- 
site for success, that he to whom the responsibility of 
leadership is committeed should possess the true mis- 
sionary spirit and the ability to inspire others with a 
measure of his own enthusiasm. But in the case of a 
large city parish there are always to be found those 
who have had some experience in religious work and 

58 



A COUNTRY PARISH. 59 

whose aptitudes and previous training render them 
skillful auxiliaries. The spectacle of the work being 
done in adjacent parishes serves also as an incentive 
and stimulates a generous rivalry in a common cause. 
Then environment counts for much and the quick 
pulse-beat of a great city where life and activity in 
all departments of effort are at the flood tide com- 
municates itself in some degree to all and stirs up 
even the least zealous Christian to a consciousness of 
his responsibilities. 

On the other hand, in a country parish remote from 
the influences of church life in the great centres, and 
where the current of existence flows sluggishly, the 
difficulties in the way of organizing the forces and 
maintaining the interest are proportionately great. 

Satterlee was too wise to fall into the mistake so 
commonly made by those who have received their 
early training in a highly organized city parish of 
attempting to work a rural parish upon identical 
lines, forgetting that the conditions which obtain in 
the country are wholly different. What he did was 
to adapt the methods which he had learned to the 
peculiar circumstances of the case. He organized 
the forces at his disposal to do some definite work 
which needed, in his opinion, to be done. He did not 
have organizations for their own sake or because 
they looked well on paper. Moreover, he did not 
expect the organizations to work themselves. He 
realized that the power behind all organization was 
a personal one, and he sought, therefore, to enlist the 



6o A FISHER OF MEN. 

services of the best persons in his parish. While he 
never shirked the responsibihty which his position as 
rector involved, neither did he fall into the opposite 
error of regarding himself as absolute dictator. As 
one of his workers said of him, ^'He never said I but 
always we/' Co-operation was his motto. If he was 
always the leader in every enterprise, he yet took his 
workers into his fullest confidence. No step of 
importance was ever taken until the matter had been 
discussed with them in all its aspects. That he so 
admirably succeeded in carrying out the plans which 
he undertook was undoubtedlj^ due to this fact. That 
the rector wanted to do a certain thing and do it in a 
certain way was sufficient. The corps of workers 
which he succeeded in gathering about him gave him 
their fullest support, because they instinctively felt 
that he regarded the work as much theirs as his own. 
The record of what was accomplished in a few short 
years by the little band of workers in this remote 
country town, seems little short of marvellous, and 
simply shows how one forceful personality was able 
to permeate the life of a wdiole community and stimu- 
late others to deeds of devotion and self-sacrifice. 

The men and women through whom he was able 
to achieve these results were not different presuma- 
bly in character and ability from those who may be 
found elsewhere in similar localities. Previous to 
his coming among them, they had been wont to 
regard their Christian obligations in the light of what 
may be termed purely ''personal religion." Their 



A COUNTRY PARISH. 6i 

horizon of Christian duty was bounded by the hmits 
of their own parochial Ufe. Doubtless they were 
pious, God-fearing men and women to whom the 
Episcopal Church represented an inheritance which 
had come down to them from a venerable past, which 
appealed to their sense of loyalty and satisfied their 
religious aspirations. They regarded it doubtless, as 
furnishing a centre about which clustered their relig- 
ious and social life, and they clung to it with a deep 
affection. The thought that they were in any degree 
trustees having in their possession a treasure which 
it was their bounden duty to share with others less 
favored than themselves, probably never crossed their 
minds. In saying this there is no intention of casting 
any aspersion upon their Christian character. Far 
from it. Such an attitude, unfortunately, is by no 
means singular. In fact, it is that which prevails 
almost everywhere. The only reason for referring to 
it here, is because it serves to bring into stronger 
contrast the change of spirit which subsequently came 
over them under the impulse of Satterlee's example 
and enthusiasm. The philanthropic and missionary 
work which the people of this country parish were to 
accomplish in the next few years is remarkable chiefly 
as showing what it is possible to do when the latent 
energies of a handful of Christian people have been 
stirred into activity under a consecrated and devoted 
spiritual leader. 

It must be borne in mind for any right understand- 
ing of the situation, that the parish was weak in 



62 A FISHER OF MEN. 

numbers and contained few persons of any means. 
The salary of six hundred dollars paid the rector, 
will serve as a rough test of its financial strength. 

It is true that church statistics have only a relative 
value and cannot properly serve as a criterion of spir- 
itual work, yet the growth of the parish during the 
six years of his pastorate affords striking evidence of 
the success of his ministrations. In a community 
where the increase of population is small, the oppor- 
tunity for the growth of the Church is usually 
restricted. Notwithstanding the fact that the popu- 
lation in Morganton increased but slightly during the 
six years covered by Satterlee's residence there, the 
Church nearly trebled the number of its communi- 
cants. He found barely 80 communicants when he 
began his labors, and when he left there were 215 on 
the roll. The Sunday-school, which had 40 scholars 
when he came, increased its numbers to 145. The 
number of persons baptized by him was 275, being 
an average of nearly 50 for each year of his pastor- 
ate. In addition to paying a debt upon the church 
edifice of $1,500 and building a rectory costing a 
like sum, the parish purchased a new pipe organ at a 
cost of $1,500, and maintained a parish day school 
at a cost of about $400 a year. A day school for 
colored children was also started and supported 
largely through Satterlee's efforts. A night school 
for children and grown persons employed during the 
day was established in the factory district, members 
of the parish serving gratuitously as the teachers. 



A COUNTRY PARISH. 63 

A club for working men was organized, and a St. 
Cecilia Singing Society formed, composed of musical 
people drawn from the whole community, and over 
which Satterlee himself presided as conductor. Be- 
sides these enterprises educational and philanthropic, 
which were all initiated by him and carried on under 
his immediate supervision in Morganton proper, he 
extended the field of his labors into the outlying dis- 
tricts and established missions of a permanent char- 
acter for the benefit of the neighboring mountain 
folk. These various missions were regularly served 
on Sundays by members of the Brotherhood of St. 
Andrew, assisted by the women of the parish. 
Chapels were erected at strategic points and appro- 
priately furnished for the purpose of holding divine 
service, and attached to each a house was built which 
served as the home for a teacher, who taught a day 
school composed of the children of mountain fami- 
lies. The money to erect these buildings was all 
raised by him personally, and the funds to provide for 
their maintenance and for the salaries of the teachers 
whom he employed in the day schools, were also 
obtained through his efforts. 

It is estimated that Satterlee must have raised from 
sources outside of Morganton from ten to twelve 
thousand dollars during the six years of his pas- 
torate. This sum he obtained almost exclusively 
from the North through personal solicitation. He 
was accustomed annually to take a vacation of a 
month or six weeks during the summer, and he 



64 A FISHER OF MEN. 

devoted much of this time to canvassing for sub- 
scriptions to his work. It was a task which he par- 
ticularly abhorred, for he was naturally of a shy and 
sensitive disposition and little relished interviewing 
strangers on such an errand. Upon being asked once 
how he managed to get so much money, he replied, 
"Oh, by ringing door bells and writing letters." "Of 
course I am often snubbed," he added. It was only 
his conviction of the absolute necessity laid upon him 
of securing money to carry on his work, that induced 
him to persevere in a task so uncongenial. The suc- 
cess he met with was remarkable. He seldom went 
to personal friends unless driven to extremity, and 
rarely to those connected with his father's parish. 
He made his appeals rather to strangers. He avoided 
the use of letters of introduction, preferring to play 
his own hand. It was his wont in calling upon a 
prospective giver to state his object in the shortest 
terms possible, saying that he would like to tell his 
story, but would not press the matter if there was no 
disposition to accord him a hearing. If he was per- 
mitted to proceed, he seldom went away without 
having accomplished his purpose. Doubtless his 
earnestness, enthusiasm, and the evident absence of 
any self-seeking, were among the chief causes of his 
success. Gradually he built up a clientele of his own 
and secured many regular subscribers whom he kept 
informed periodically regarding the progress of his, 
work. He seems never to have been compelled to 



A COUNTRY PARISH. 65 

abandon any enterprise because of his inability to 
secure the funds required. 

The director of the parish branch of the Brother- 
hood of St. Andrew, who was also a vestryman of 
the church, furnishes an estimate of the amount of 
money raised by Satterlee from outside sources, 
coupled with tlie statement that there was much more 
spent by him of which no record is available : 

Three Chapels $1,200 00 

Three Mission Houses 1,800 00 

Towards new Organ 800 00 

Towards new Rectory 300 00 

Towards Church Debt 800 oo 

Salaries of various teachers in 

parish and mission stations. . 5,000 00 

$9,900 00 

**This mone}^" he declares, 'Svas so quietly col- 
lected that w^e never knew where it came from." 

It might be noted here that there was another 
chapel built, making four in all, the cost of which 
was defrayed by the Morganton people themselves. 
This was the first erected, and was called St. 
Andrew's after the Brotherhood. This chapel was 
subsequently sold and the mission abandoned owing 
to the small attendance and the desire to concentrate 
energies in more promising fields. Satterlee also 
established a fifth Mission known as Quaker Mead- 
ows, which has since grown into an important work 
and now possesses its own permanent chapel. 



66 A FISHER OF MEN. 

The women of the parish were organized into 
various societies, along the usual lines. There was a 
Chancel Guild which looked after the interior of the 
church, keeping the sanctuary in order and having 
charge of the communion vessels. The Woman's 
Auxiliary included a visiting branch which, under 
the rector's supervision, made regular calls upon the 
poor and the sick and presented a weekly report to 
him. A sewing society made articles and sold them 
for the benefit of the parish and also provided the 
furnishings for the chancel and the clergy and choir 
vestments. For little girls, there w^as a society called 
the "Busy Bees," which did work suited to their 
abilities. Several of the women and older girls regu- 
larly went out to the missions, acting as teachers in 
the Sunday-schools and helping with the singing. 
The young boys were organized into a junior branch 
of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and appropriate 
work was found for them in keeping the church yard 
neat and clean. 

The rector published, with the help of others, a 
monthly parish paper, known as "The Crusader," 
which had a successful career. As it was the only 
Church paper published in the missionary jurisdic- 
tion of Asheville, its circulation was soon widely 
extended, and it finally became the recognized organ 
of the jurisdiction. 

The exceptional missionary and philanthropic 
work which Satterlee accomplished was made possi- 
ble only through his enlistment of laymen and their 



A COUNTRY PARISH. 67 

organization in the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. 
Satterlee had himself joined this society when in 
Calvary Church and was a firm believer in its aims 
and methods. He realized that only by securing the 
interest and co-operation of the leading men of his 
parish could he secure the results he desired. He saw 
also that when once organized he must find some 
definite and positive w^ork for them to do, work, 
moreover, which they would feel was worthy of their 
best efforts. Accordingly, shortly after assuming 
charge of the parish he called together several of the 
prominent laymen whom he felt he could depend 
upon to second his efforts, and effected an organiza- 
tion. The first meeting was held on June 6, 1895, 
when three members w^ere initiated. In the course 
of the month the society had increased to fourteen 
members, and was ready to do aggressive work. The 
by-laws adopted provided for a regular weekly meet- 
ing, and it is interesting to note, that for the years 
Satterlee remained in Morganton, this rule was 
punctually observed. On the rector's initiative, the 
Chapter adopted the following special rules, which 
were incorporated into the by-laws under the head- 
ing '"Suggestions" : 

'*i. To attend the early celebration of the Holy 
Communion in a body on the fourth Sunday in the 
month; to bear in mind especially at that time, the 
spread of Christ's Kingdom among young men, and 
particularly in Morganton. 

"*2. To connect myself with the Sunday-school as 



^8 A FISHER OF MEN. 

teacher or with the Bible Class as member, or to 
attend the mission to be carried on by the Brother- 
hood. 

''3. To remember not only in Church worship, but 
at all times, the responsibility of my example, not 
merely as a Brotherhood man and a Churchman, but 
as a 'member of Christ, the child of God and an 
inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven.' " 

The personnel of the Brotherhood was undoubt- 
edly one of the chief factors in the success which 
marked its efforts. The members were among the 
leading men in the parish and the community. Sev- 
eral of them belonged to the vestry. All were men 
of probity and many among them were men of 
mature years. Among their number were lawyers, 
merchants, business men, and one was a retired 
officer of the British army. 

The members of the Brotherhood were divided 
into different committees, to which were assigned 
various duties. Some visited men in their homes, 
and called on strangers at the hotels. Others wel- 
comed visitors to the services and acted as ushers. 
Others taught in the parish Sunday-school and that 
of the colored church. Several gave their services as 
teachers in the night school, while others conducted 
services on Sundays in the county jail and alms- 
house, — and still others, when the missions in the 
mountains were established, acted as lay readers or 
teachers in the Sunday-schools. All stood ready to 
assist the rector in any good work which he desired 



A COUNTRY PARISH. 69 

to do. The records of the society were carefully kept 
and the minutes of the weekly meetings fill three 
good-sized books. Reports in detail of work done 
were made at the weekly meetings by the members 
and matters of interest were talked over. A report 
covering the work for the year accomplished was 
annually compiled by the secretary. One of these 
reports, that for the year ending Easter, 1897, is here 
given, as furnishing an idea of the character and 
magnitude of the Brotherhood's labors. 

Number of members, 14. 

Chapter meetings every Friday. 

Corporate Communion fourth Sunday in month. 

Visitation of the sick. 

Hotel visited for strangers. 

Jail visited weekly. 

Lent services at noon in Court House twice a 
week, attendance 600. 

Night school twice a week, average attendance 30, 
some grown people. 

Services at St. Stephen's Church (colored) every 
Sunday night, average attendance 20; Sunday-school 
average attendance 30. 

Services conducted without rector, 350. 

Missions served as follows : 

St. Andrew's, 73/^ miles from town, services 50, 
attendance 1,500. 

Good Shepherd, 3^ miles from town, services 51, 
attendance 3,300. 

(Day school, night school twice a week, sewing 



70 A FISHER OF MEN. 

class twice a week, prayer service twice a week. Bap- 
tisms 21.) 

St. George's, 6>4 miles from town, services 49, 
attendance 5,300. 

Total attendance, 10,100. 

Rain Hill, 15 miles from town, services all during 
summer; Sunday-school 25 average attendance, at 
Church services 50. 

Total number of miles driven, 2,000. 

In the report of work for the following year, the 
number of baptisms at missions is given at 33 and 
confirmation at 20; Lay readers 2; Catechists 4; 
Sunday-school teachers 2; Bible class teachers 2; 
Educational Committee 6; Hospitality Committee 7. 
The average attendance at the weekly chapter meet- 
ing is stated as being 71-3. 

The former director of the Brotherhood writes as 
follows in regard to the mutual relations of the rec- 
tor and the members of the Society : 

*'Mr. Satterlee was at his best in the Brotherhood 
meetings. Nowhere else did he seem so free from a 
restraint which clung to him in the pulpit and even 
in private conversation. There he was almost boyish 
in his freedom, while at no time losing sight of the 
paramoimt duty incident to the meeting. There was 
never a need to remind members of the time of 
assembling. If they could come, they came, and 
largely, it must be owned, to enjoy association with 
him. The vestry room of the church was usually 



A COUNTRY PARISH. n 

chosen as the meeting place, especially in the winter 
season. 

'The general mission work of the parish was the 
chief standing theme of talk and action, though the 
individual reports of weekly work were at all times 
interesting, and often humorous. 

''The rector had a w^onderful knack of bringing 
modest members to the front and having them 
express opinions upon the matter in hand. His open- 
ing and closing of the meetings was most tender, 
affectionate and touching. 

'T am sure the men entered into it with more heart 
there than elsewhere, and that thoughts were born 
which will live always.'' 

Of course, Satterlee had the ordinary experience 
of clergymen in meeting with failures. His first 
Mission, St. Andrews's, had to be given up owing to 
the meagre attendance at the services. The Club he 
organized for young men and boys, though at first 
promising well, was subsequently disbanded. The 
Communicants' Union, w^hich he tried hard to keep 
going, went out of existence owing to the difficulty 
of maintaining the interest. But the failure of these 
and other enterprises for which he had worked hard, 
while they depressed him for a time, were powerless 
to quench his enthusiasm. He was always looking at 
the bright side, not merely because such an attitude 
was in accordance with his temperament, but because 
he conceived it a religious duty. He was opposed 
sometimes by vestrymen or members of his congre- 



72 A FISHER OF MEN. 

gation, through pure contrariness, but more often 
through the natural inertia of conservative minds. 
This opposition had a pecuHar effect upon him. He 
was so used to sympathize that he tried to sympa- 
thize 'with his opposers, — at least so far as to put 
forth the effort to see things as they saw them, and 
even to see himself through their eyes. The conse- 
quence was, that his opposers gradually grew to 
realize that he was striving to find points of union 
with them, rather than of difference, that he was 
anxious to be absolutely just, and that he was actu- 
ally showing more consideration for them than he 
was for himself, — and thus they usually became 
ashamed of themselves and abandoned their attitude 
of opposition. Undoubtedly also, his unfailing gift 
of seeing things in a humorous way, helped him to 
rob opposition of its asperity and prevent controversy 
from becoming ill-natured. 

Doubtless he was brought more keenly in contact 
with failure in his endeavors to reform young men 
whom he strove to assist. Notwithstanding repeated 
experiences of failure on the part of those in whom 
he specially interested himself, he never seemed to 
grow discouraged, but was always hoping better 
things of them. One young man whom he took into 
his own house, and who lived with him in the rec- 
tory month after month, kept on drinking, notwith- 
standing every promise that he made, and when he 
left the house empty whiskey bottles were found con- 
cealed in all parts of the house. 



A COUNTRY PARISH. 73 

A description of the first service held at the origi- 
nal mission station established by Satterlee is given 
by a member of the parish, a lady who was one of the 
chief workers: 

"On a lovely Sunday afternoon in July the first 
mission service was started by Mr. Satterlee at a 
place about seven and one-half miles from Morgan- 
ton — afterwards called St. Andrew's. Mr. Satterlee 
had one Church family in that neighborhood, and he 
thought by having a mission near them, he could 
probably gather a congregation. He asked permis- 
sion to use an old log cabin for the services, and went 
out the week before the first appointed service and 
got some one to promise to make necessary repairs. 

"On the Sunday, Mr. Satterlee, together with his 
organist and a few members of the choir, who took 
with them a small portable organ, left town early in 
the afternoon. They had to cross a wide and treach- 
erous ford on the Catawba river with which at that 
time he was not familiar. He drove too straight 
across and got into deep water, but the horse swam 
and they escaped an accident. 

"When he arrived at the cabin it was only to find 
that the needed repairs had not been made — that 
looked discouraging, but not for long. Mr. Satterlee 
soon decided it would be even pleasanter to have the 
service under the white pine trees which surrounded 
the old cabin and where the ground was covered 
several inches deep with dry pine needles. What 
better carpet or sweeter one could w^e have had ? So 



74 A FISHER OF MEN. 

we brought out the planks and improvised benches, 
placed the organ and arranged a platform for Mr. 
Satterlee. Then we seated the congregation of about 
twenty people. There under the pine trees with the 
rhododendrons blooming all round us was held the 
first service of the first mission the rector established. 

''That cabin was used for twelve months, but was 
repaired before winter. As showing its condition at 
first, it may be stated that the lay reader and organist 
on arriving a few minutes late one day were greeted 
with, Tt is lucky you were a little late ; a few minutes 
ago we just happened to see a huge black snake coile'd 
up under your seat near the organ.' It had crawled 
in between the logs of the cabin. You may be sure I 
was glad I was late that afternoon." 

On November 9, 1898, Satterlee contracted a sec- 
ond marriage, wedding Miss Helen Stuyvesant Fol- 
som, eldest daughter of George Winthrop Folsom, 
Esq., of New York City and Lenox, Mass. The 
ceremony was performed in Trinity Church, Lenox, 
by Satterlee's father, the Bishop of Washington, 
assisted by Bishop Doane, the Rev. Dr. Battershall, 
of Albany, and the Rev. Harold Arrowsmith, the 
rector of the parish. Satterlee returned at once to 
Morganton with his bride. Mrs. Satterlee entered 
enthusiastically into her husband's work, her quick 
sympathies and splendid health making her a true 
helpmeet in the busy missionary life which he led. 

The following letter written to friends at home 
within a few weeks after her coming to Morganton, 



A COUNTRY PARISH. 75 

gives a vivid picture, full of local coloring, of the 
strenuous conditions under which the work was 
being done, and sets forth the details of a busy week 
during the Christmas holidays : 

''Saturday, December 24, 1898. In the morning 
we started immediately after breakfast for the Good 
Shepherd to coach the children some more in their 
carols. You will be getting tired of the word mud, 
so unless I say the roads were good take it for granted 
that the mud was most of the time a foot deep and 
the rest of the time up to the hubs — not little 'Hub' 
(Mrs. Satterlee's dog), but the wheel hubs, and occa- 
sionally holes that nearly tip us over. Well, we drove 
to the Mission, took Belle, the horse we have about 
decided to buy, and she worked like a trooper. It 
was a fine day. I took my knitting and did quite a 
lot. There were many children there. Mrs. T — , 
who is in charge, was much much amused with 
'Hub,' who refused to lie on the bare wood floor, as 
it was muddy from the children's shoes, so she got a 
piece of carpet ; he is always spoilt wherever he goes. 
I believe it must be the rubber lip, which always looks 
so pathetic when he is not happy. We came back 
through the W's place, and Herbert W — gave us 
some quail; the shooting is fine here now. Every 
one advises me to get Belle; they say she is a very 
good animal, though about nine years old. We ate 
a hurried luncheon, then drove out to see Mrs. I — . 
Churchill had some prayers with her. Such a sad 
Xmas for her children. They were working over a 



76 A FISHER OF MEN. 

Xmas tree upstairs. She has been such a good 
mother always. It is so sad. Her oldest girl, six- 
teen, is so pretty and sweet. They are really nice 
people, but desperately poor, and she is dying, and the 
baby is six months old. 

**On the w^ay home we met all the country people,. 
— the 'pore whites' — returning to their cabins from 
the Xmas shopping in 'town.' Such picturesque 
sights! The road winds down the side of a hill, so 
we could see the procession some w^ay ahead. The 
roads, you know, are bright red, so are very marked. 
There w^ere all kinds of old wagons, some even with- 
out seats, and the women all in their big sun-bonnets, 
sitting on the floor, or sometimes on rocking chairs. 
Old and young, the women all wear these sun- 
bonnets, big calico ones, and with their stern, scrawny 
faces look like watches. There were also many men 
on horses, ponies, mules, and donkeys. Most of the 
men have shaggy reddish beards. And now and then 
w^e saw a soldier. Some had toys flung over their 
backs, and all carried bundles of various descriptions. 
They always take ofif their hats and say 'good even- 
ing.' Sometimes they say 'What a nice little dog' to 
'Hub.' 

"We got home finally, and stopped 'down street' to 
get some things for the servants. I wish you could 
have some idea of w^hat 'down street' is like here — a 
wide bleak-looking street with tumbledown 'stores' — 
heaps of rubbish — papers of all sizes and kinds 
strewn everywhere, and blowing about, and the side- 



A COUNTRY PARISH. 77 

walks swarming with men — black, brown, yellow and 
white. All just standing about with their hands in 
their pockets, or leaning against posts or walls. And 
a row of horses, and carts on each side, 'hitched.' It 
is a queer place — and all this may bore you. 

"We came back to see how the church was getting 
on; it was about finished and looked lovely. The 
rood-screen was a great success; over the cross there 
was a big star (gilded too) with electric lights in 
the different points — most effective! When I came 
out the church yard looked so awfully that I decided 
to tidy it up a bit, so got our rake, and soon I was 
joined by two little boys and we worked like beavers, 
till it got too dark to see. Little Hugh G — told his 
mother that Mrs. S — had to take her jacket off she 
worked so hard. 

"Mrs. T — came to supper, and afterwards w^e 
went to the reunion at the Town Hall. I had been 
dreading it frightfully, but it turned out very jolly 
and informal. Of course Churchill was the moving 
spirit, and kept things going. They played 'Going to 
Jerusalem,' and old Colonel W — , 83 years old, was 
left the last with a very pretty girl, and everyone 
laughed to see them going round together. Finally 
she sat down, and he sat on her lap ! 

"Then Churchill made a speech that amused every 
one; and finally in came Santa Clans! I had helped 
him outside, to get his mask on and put cotton on 
him in patches. He was a great success and said 
some very funny things; — it was Ralph L — . Then 



78 A FISHER OF MEN. 

there was a cake walk. Too funny! If only you 
could have seen one couple ; it didn't seem as though 
they could be real, as though they must be made up. 
They were both tall and thin, with faces that looked 
as though they were carved out of wood. She wore 
an enormous brown sun-bonnet which she kept on 
all the whole evening, a man's black cloth coat, and 
a skimpy, draggled skirt. She was cross-eyed, with 
deep wrinkles and lines in her face, but had quite a 
sweet smile when you spoke to her. He was tall and 
thin and straight, looked something like Major M — , 
but a stronger face. He had been all through the 
war in the Confederate army. Well, those two 
walked solemnly in the cake walk, while everyone 
else tried to be funny. The old Colonel put on a 
tremendous swagger and walked waving his stick 
like a drum major and was delightful. The other 
two walked without changing a muscle in their stern 
faces, though everyone was in fits over them. And 
the judges awarded the cake to them, Colonel and 
Mrs. O — . She walked the whole length of the hall, 
still dignified and stern, and took the cake! When 
they drew the grab-bag things she got a book, 'The 
Lady of the Lake,' and he, a cake of soap ! I asked 
her if she would like to change it for something else, 
but she said quite shyly, 'I can read a little,' and I 
said, 'Oh, of course, and I am sure you will like it.' 
They were both at church, a little less stern perhaps, 
and she said they had eaten a little of the cake — not 



A COUNTRY PARISH. 79 

the soap. The grab-bag was all Churchiirs idea — 
he ordered all the thjngs from Wanamaker's himself. 

"Before leaving the hall all formed a big circle and 
sang 'Auld Lang Syne.' Then we went home, and 
several ladies came in, and we broke up candy for 
bags for Sunday-school children till it was time for 
church. I had suggested a midnight celebration to 
Churchill, for I loved the one last year at the Sisters'. 
We had two lighted candles on the altar. The ser- 
vice was beautiful and everyone was much impressed 
by it. Churchill intoned a part of the service and so 
well, and the music was very good. We got to bed 
after one o'clock. 

''Sunday, December 25. The next morning, 
Xmas, when we came down to breakfast, Mrs. T — 
was already in the library. After breakfast we undid 
a few things, but Churchill had to go over to Sunday- 
school. So I waited till he could be here 

. . . After Mrs. T — had returned to her mission, 
Churchill came back and we opened our presents. 

"The morning service was fine. Churchill's ser- 
mon was splendid, a great success, and most popular. 
Mr. P — asked him if he would have it published. 
Right after service he had a Celebration at the col- 
ored church, and it was quite curious and weird to 
see my big splendid Churchill and the little, fat, inky- 
black clergyman together, and the row of black peo- 
ple at the rail. We were tired and hungry for our 
dinner, but before it was over Churchill had to rush 
away. We took the banners over to the church and 



8o A FISHER OF MEN. 

at two o'clock the children began to arrive. It was a 
warm sunny day, and all the children were so bright 
and happy. The children from the different Missions 
drove up in big wagons, over two hundred children 
in all. It was a very inspiring scene. They formed 
a long line outside, each Mission with its banner, 
four in all. The church w^as packed. First came the 
choir boys in their little clean cottas, then Churchill 
looking so good (can't you see him?) singing away, 
then all the little poor children in their heavy boots, 
clattering along, and a lot of big rough men, all look- 
ing so shy and pleased. The carols were sung with 
so much spirit. I thought the whole service very 
touching and splendid. A few years ago none of 
those people or children knew a thing, and were 
totally ignorant, not only about the Church, but the 
ordinary civilities of life. When that was over, they 
all came down to the vestry room, and I helped 
Churchill give them each a package of candy, the 
men and women too. Then we had a moment to our- 
selves. The hills were beautiful and so restful — we 
took a little walk. Churchill is fine ; he wanted to go 
to thank the organist, when he was so tired, mentally, 
and needed a rest, and I wouldn't let him, but brought 
him home, and we had some tea. Then Mr. P — 
and Janey came to supper, and after they had gone 
we went to the G — 's, for Churchill wanted to talk it 
over with them, and thought it would please them. 

''Monday, December 26. To-day is glorious, and 
it is fortunate, as we had to go to two Missions this 



A COUNTRY PARISH. 8x 

p, M Seven miles to St. George's for the 

Xmas tree, from there to the Good Shepherd, about 
ten miles, for their tree, and three miles home from 

there, 

''We went on horseback and rode about twenty 
miles. We started about one o'clock. Mr. C. P — 
went with us. Such a nice man of the old-fashioned 
type of Southerner. He weighs 250 pounds and rode 
a great big powerful horse who loped the whole time. 
Mr, P — wore a long coat, the tails of which sepa- 
rated in the back and hung down straight on either 
side, and a sort of dress waist-coat, showing a great 
deal of shirt. He ambled along without budging in 
the saddle, and so fast I could hardly keep up. We 
got to St George's in good time notwithstanding the 
mud. It was quite a sight to see the crowd of people 
waiting outside of the chapel. So many women with 
little babies, and quantities of men and boys, and of 
course lots of children. I saw one of my god-children 
there, the paralyzed half idiotic one. It was a bright 
sunny warm day. If I had only taken my kodak 
with me! 

''One old woman took quite a fancy to me. I sat 
by her in the chapel and she kept patting my knee. 
A younger one with a baby put her arm around my 
waist when we stood up. She asked me if I were 
Mr. Satterlee's wife. When I said 'Yes,' she said, 
*You look right yoimg to be a preacher's wife.' 

"The entertainment was wonderful. The chapel 
was darkened, about two hundred people crowded in, 



82 A FISHER OF MEN. 

not even standing room, for there were some outside 
who could not get in. There was a Httle play (the 
chapel has not been consecrated), and the children 
were really wonderful. There was a Santa Claus 
too. An old man named Squire M — was called upon 
to make a speech, and astounded us all (gold bugs, as 
they call us) by proposing a cheer for Sister Ella, 
and Colonel Bryan. 

''We got away by four o'clock and took the loveli- 
est road across country, through woods, through 
lovely country, over brooks, and out on to the Brin- 
dletown road, the one to the Good Shepherd. We 
got there rather too soon. Mrs. T — was very busy, 
but bright and cheerful as usual. She gave us quite 
a supper about 5.30, and we were hungry! She had 
a Xmas tree in the chapel, which was also packed. 
And the children all recited pieces, some too killing 
for words. I almost died over them, but all the coun- 
try people thought it beautiful, especially when a 
carefully dressed young man got up and with appro- 
priate gestures recited 'Bungin, fair Bungin on the 
Rhine' ! 

'Tt was dark when we came out, but such a lovely 
clear sky and bright moonlight. The horses were 
cold and feeling good when we started and snorted 
cheerfully, and we had a glorious ride home. 
Churchill said he liked it ; was not a bit stiff after it, 
nor Mr. P — either. 

^^Tuesday. December 27. There were women 
here all the morning arranging things for the church 



A COUNTRY PARISH. 83 

Xmas tree. After helping them a Httle I went with 
Churchill to call on a few people, and then came back 
and helped the boys with the church yard. 

''At 7.30 was the Xmas tree. I sat up in front and 
helped with the presents. The church w^as packed. 
Churchill made a nice address. He knows just how 
to talk to the people, especially the children, who all 
love him. They sang their carols again, and then 
got their presents. 

''After the tree we persuaded Mrs. G — to go with 
us to Asheville. We took the midnight train. The 
mountains were very weird and beautiful in the 
moonlight ; the scenery is much finer than I expected. 
We got to Asheville at 2.30 a. m.: the hotel was 
heated with steam and almost killed me, after our 
cool, fresh little house. 

'Wednesday, December 28. The day was fine 
but colder, and more windy, than here. We had a 
little time before church and did some shopping. 
Churchill left us before ten, for he had to take part 
in the consecration of the new Bishop of Asheville, 
which, by the way, is the reason for our going. He 
was the only man of the twenty clergy and five Bish- 
ops who was as tall as Churchill. Churchill read the 
Testimonials, a great honor, being the youngest 
there, and so many old men. He did it very well and 
impressively, and I felt so proud ! The sermon was 
preached by the Bishop of South Carolina, and was 
very good. The service lasted three hours and a 
half. We came back on the 2.30 train, ate a sandwich 



34 A FISHER OF MEN. 

at the station, and got home at five in the morning. 
Met no end of clergy and several Bishops. The old 
Bishop of East Carolina told me that Churchill was 
the man he wanted for Bishop. 

*'That night the moon was so bright and the night 
so lovely that we took a little drive. 

''Thursday, December 29. At 7.30 in the evening 
was the Xmas tree at the colored church. I thought 
I wouldn't go, being rather tired, and about 8.30 
w^alked down with ^Hub' to meet Churchill. Looked 
in at the window and saw him and Mr. P — sitting 
on the last seat, and tapped on the window. They 
both jumped up, and insisted on my coming in, and 
'Hub' too. I did not have on any hat, so Churchill 
gave me his cap. The little colored children recited 
and got presents. Fancy my despair to find another 
dog lying on the floor. At first 'Hub' did not see 
him, but when he did Mr. P — quickly put his hat 
over his whole head, which completely squelched him. 

''Friday. December 30. Another busy day. Be- 
gan with the boys in the garden, and then went with 
Churchill to call on some people out in the country; 
a lovely drive. We had to ford a wide river, with 
islands in it, and so deep the water came in the buggy. 
Most thrilling! We made a long call, and as usual 
were plied with food, cake, pie, etc., which we ate, 
and got home at two in the afternoon with no desire 
for dinner. 

''A little before four Churchill and I started for the 
Mission of the Cross, for the Xmas tree. We went 



A COUNTRY PARISH. 85 

to the house of a Mr. H — , where we found Mr. John 
P — and Mrs. G — , who had gone to decorate the 
tree. Mr. H — and his daughters insisted on our 
going into the dining room and eating a regular 
meal ! Then we went to the chapel. The tree was a 
great success. Everything is most primitive out 
there. It is the newest of the chapels, and there are 
more men and boys there than at the others. Besides 
the candles on the tree the only lights were three ordi- 
nary lamps, and it was very effective, for the eager, 
wondering faces stood out in the dark background. 
Each child got a present, and the little ones that 
trotted up with outstretched arms to get their dolls, 
were sweet and touching, and great was the awe 
with which they looked at their new treasures. 

"When we came out it w^as pitch dark, being a 
cloudy night. There were some groups which would 
have delighted Ethel, with pine torches, lighting up 
the rugged faces of the men, the big sun-bonnets of 
the women, and the children. 

*We had to walk the horse nearly all the way 
home. Mr. P — drove in front and carried a parlor 
lamp which kept going out. 

"And now I have got to the end of the Xmas trees 
and to another Saturday, and, for the time being, will 
stop." 

In the winter of 1900, a Mission of ten days was 
held in the parish by Bishop Coleman, of Delaware. 
Satterlee had worked very hard for several months 
previous to make the Mission a success, and had been 



S6 A FISHER OF MEN. 

nobly seconded in his efforts by the members of the 
Brotherhood and other parish organizations. The 
result amply justified their labors. When Bishop 
Coleman came he found the ground thoroughly pre- 
pared for him and the interest of the whole com- 
munity aroused. As evidence of the general enthusi- 
asm and the personal regard felt for the rector of the 
parish by all classes, the merchants of the town, irre- 
spective of their religious affiliations, and including 
even the Jews, closed their shops daily at an earlier 
hour, thus affording an opportunity for all to attend 
the Mission services. In addition to the regular ser- 
vices in the parish church, special services were held 
in the Court House and county institutions, at several 
factories, at St. Stephen's, the church for colored 
people, and at one of the outlying missions. An 
accurate record was kept of the attendance, the total 
running up to over six thousand, surely a remarkable 
showing in a population numbering about two thou- 
sand souls. 

In a letter to the writer Bishop Coleman speaks 
enthusiastically of the Mission and pays a high 
tribute to Satterlee's character and abilities : 

"I came to know the Rev. Churchill Satterlee very 
well during a Mission that I held, at his request, while 
he was rector of Morganton, North Carolina. 

"Opportunities afforded in this way are particu- 
larly well adapted to forming an intimate acquaint- 
anceship, and, as in this case decidedly, even a friend- 
ship. 



A COUNTRY PARISH. 87 

*Tt was a Mission that had about it some features 
of unusual interest, as regards, for example, the 
scope of the various congregations gathered, not only 
in the parish church, but elsewhere, daily, and as 
regards the general sympathy evoked. 

''The whole community was deeply interested, and 
there v;ere most gratifying evidences throughout of 
a like mindfulness on the parts of the people belong- 
ing to the several outlying mission stations that 
were under his charge. 

"Now, all this was largely owing, under God, to 
the careful preparations that he had made, and his 
own inspiring enthusiasm; an enthusiasm born out 
of his devout and hearty concern for the people's 
spiritual welfare. 

''We were in constant and minute conversation 
upon this subject day by day; and I could not but be 
much impressed with his whole-souled desire for the 
uplifting of his people. 

"He evidently felt his responsibility for their souls, 
and was not willing to leave anything untried that 
promised to help them to any degree. 

"How well I can recall the delightful hours spent 
after the services at night, in conversation with him 
and his dear wife over the events of the day, and in 
planning for the morrow. 

"Such intercourse drew us very close to each other; 
and I grew to love him more and more for his Chris- 
tian and attractive manliness. 

"In subsequent correspondence, especially as he 



SS A FISHER OF MEN. 

would sometimes write to me for my opinion upon 
certain subjects, it was charming to discover his 
strong growth in grace. 

"I feel that the Church has lost one who bade fair 
to be among her most effective and trustworthy 
friends, and who, both by doctrine and example, was 
well calculated to promote her best interests wherever 
he might be." 

One of Satterlee's dominant characteristics was 
that he kept his eyes open, and was constantly scan- 
ning the horizon to see if there were any kind of 
opportunity for advancing his work. He had the 
quality of "initiative" in a remarkable degree, and it 
was this which stamped so much of his work with 
originality. 

Morganton is the county seat, where the Court 
meets at certain intervals in the year. Here, as in 
many other parts of the country, the sessions of the 
Court draw the country folk from all quarters by a 
strange spell of attraction. 

Satterlee felt that here was an opportunity of 
reaching out-of-the-way people, who were often far 
from every kind of gospel ministrations. And so 
during the recess of Court, he had mid-day services, 
about a half hour in length, at which he himself 
spoke, and secured also other clergymen to help him. 
There was always a good congregation, sometimes a 
very large one. 

One who was much struck with the way in 
which he utilized these and other opportunities, and 



A COUNTRY PARISH. 89 

made the most of them, asked him how it was that he 
was so successful. Satterlee's answer was, 'T do not 
understand why it is that I succeed. I suppose it is 
because I am trying to reach the people in the com- 
munity in every way that God points out. This is 
what God gives me to do. Whether other parish 
priests could have the same success with the same 
methods, I cannot tell." 

The only General Convention of which Satterlee 
was a member was that which met in 1898, in the 
city of Washington. There is a circumstance which 
occurred in this connection which reveals the magna- 
nimity of the man. Satterlee was present as a Deputy 
from the recently created Missionary District of 
Asheville, for which jurisdiction the Convention dur- 
ing that session was to choose a Bishop. The name 
of Satterlee himself, but without his sanction, had 
been mentioned in connection with this ofifice, and 
there was a strong movement in some quarters to 
press for his nomination. When the name of another 
man was sent down from the House of Bishops, and 
inquiries were made as to his qualifications for the 
office, Satterlee immediately arose, and in a speech of 
remarkable vigor bore the strongest personal testi- 
mony to the character and attainments of the nomi- 
nee. Though Satterlee' s name had not come before 
the Convention in a formal way, yet he was aware 
that his own claims upon the office had been discussed 
by those immediately about him. 

We can imagine how painful this must have been 



90 A FISHER OF MEN. 

to the sensitive and delicate nature of a man who, by 
going to a missionary field in the mountains of North 
Carolina, instead of seeking a call to a city parish, 
had proved how little he sought or desired position 
or influence. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PIONEER WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 

Satterlee's success in ministering to the moun- 
taineers was phenomenal. From the very inception 
of the work he seems to have met with great encour- 
agement. Others who had previously attempted to 
do evangelistic work among these people had found 
the difficulties so great that they were forced to 
abandon their efforts. Before Satterlee's coming to 
Morganton a feeble attempt had been made to estab- 
lish a mission by a former rector, but the enterprise 
had languished and had finally been given up. The 
field so far as it was worked at all was in the hands 
of the Baptists and Methodists. There were no regu- 
lar chapels or permanent mission stations anywhere 
belonging to these bodies, and the only religious 
ministrations of any sort were occasional preaching 
services held by itinerant evangelists in log cabins or 
school houses, where such existed. These preachers 
were themselves, in many cases, almost as ignorant 
and illiterate as those to whom they preached. Not 
infrequently they were men whose moral characters 
were not above suspicion. Their exhortations had 
often little in them of the spirit of the Gospel, and 

91 



92 A FISHER OF MEN. 

were based upon the crudest theological conceptions. 
''Hell fire" and "damnation" were their favorite 
themes, and they did not hesitate to consign to eternal 
torments those especially who failed to contribute to 
the collections which constituted the means whence 
they derived a miserable livelihood. It is said to be 
not at all an uncommon thing in these parts for one 
who is too lazy to do manual w^ork, to take up 
"preaching" for a living. The writer was informed 
of the case of a revival preacher who was known to 
have at least two wives living in different sections of 
the mountains, but who, nevertheless, continued to 
pursue his avocation without let or hindrance, either 
on the part of the civil authorities or the ecclesiastical 
body to which he professed to belong. In referring 
to these cases there is no intention of casting any 
aspersion upon the Christian bodies under whose 
name and authority these vagrant preachers claimed 
to exercise their functions. Doubtless in many 
instances there was no official connection whatsoever 
between the two, the work of the self-constituted 
evangelist being conducted wholly upon his own 
initiative. 

To a people cut off by their illiteracy from all intel- 
lectual interests, living in isolated communities, 
steeped in poverty, whose days are spent in trying to 
wrest a precarious living out of the stony soil of their 
farms on the mountain side, anything that serves to 
break the dull monotony of existence is welcome. 
Hence, the announcement that there will be "preach- 



WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 93 

ing" at a certain center is always received with inter- 
est, and the appointed time usually sees a goodly 
number, including both sexes and all ages, gathered 
from the surrounding region. One who has occa- 
sionally attended these meetings has described a 
typical scene to the writer. A log cabin capable of 
holding seventy-five to a hundred people is packed 
with mountaineers and their families. The men and 
women sit on opposite sides of the room. The faces 
of all are expressionless. There is no enthusiasm dis- 
played. The eyes are cast down so that no one looks 
at the speaker. The women wear sun-bonnets, — the 
usual feminine headgear of the mountains at all 
periods of the year. Men and women alike are 
engaged in chewing tobacco, the juice of which is 
squirted at intervals in the direction of a receptacle 
placed in the center of the room. The preacher, as 
he becomes heated by the enthusiasm of his own 
eloquence, does not hesitate to divest himself of coat 
and waistcoat. Then in shirt sleeves he perambulates 
the aisle, and, in company with his hearers, squirts 
streams of tobacco juice into the common receptacle. 
What were the definite Christian doctrines 
preached the writer's informant did not seem able 
to recall. Evidently the homiletical impression made 
upon his mind was slight. He remembered, how- 
ever, that the revivalist, as he strode up and down in 
his shirt sleeves, thanked the Lord with unction that 
he "never had no schoolinV' but was "an ignorant 
man." 



^ 



94 A FISHER OF MEN. 

It was among a people accustomed to receive their 
religious impressions under such grotesque forms and 
amid such squalid surroundings, that Satterlee did 
his pioneer work and laid the foundations of the 
Church deep and strong. To-day in the neighbor- 
hood where he ministered, a marked change in the 
appearance and habits of the people is plainly notice- 
able. Services are conducted according to Prayer 
Book usage, in chapels appropriately furnished with 
the accessories of worship. The buildings are kept 
clean, and the congregation of its own accord refrains 
from bespattering the floors with tobacco juice. 
Hundreds who could neither read nor write, have 
now mastered these arts, either directly as the result 
of their attendance at the day schools connected with 
the missions, or indirectly through the impetus given 
by these schools to the general cause of education. 
When Satterlee began his mission work in the moun- 
tains there were few if any public schools, but since 
that time several have been started. The people as 
they came under the influence of the Church, began 
gradually to realize their deficiencies, and have 
developed a desire for the advantages of educa- 
tion. It was a most difficult task at first to 
convince the parents that it was desirable to 
permit their children to receive instruction. As 
soon as children were capable of doing any 
work, the parents invariably found employment 
for them at home, and were jealous of anything 
that deprived them of their services. To a request 



WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 95 

that their children be sent to school, the parents were 
commonly wont to reply, **We had no schoolin' and 
we reckon they needn't have none either/' To-day 
that attitude has largely disappeared and the parents 
gladly send their children to school at such times as 
their help is not imperatively required at home. Per- 
haps it would be too much to claim, that the change 
discernible in this respect is wholly due to the work 
Satterlee initiated, but certainly much of the credit 
for the improvement is clearly traceable to the influ- 
ence of the missions he established. 

It would be a mistake to imagine, because these 
mountain folk are illiterate, that they are not in many 
cases very intelligent, or because they live in squalor, 
that they do not possess many sterling virtues. They 
are hospitable to the last degree, personally cour- 
ageous, loyal to each other, uncomplaining, and fair 
in their dealings. In their heredity they represent, 
perhaps, the purest strain of native Americanism to 
be found in the whole country. There is among them 
practically no admixture of foreign blood. Every 
one of them possesses doubtless the qualifications for 
admittance to such patriotic societies as the Sons of 
the Revolution and the Colonial Wars. Out of such 
stock have arisen men like Andrew Jackson and 
Abraham Lincoln. Reticent and shy in the presence 
of strangers, they are extremely sensitve to criticism 
and suspicious of the motives of those coming among 
them from the outside world. The faults prevalent 
among them are those which naturally pertain to a 



9^ A FISHER OF MEN. 

rude and simple people living in a state of isolation, 
and who, for the most part, are a law unto them- 
selves. Illegitimacy and concubinage are frequent. 
Feuds, sometimes leading to a prolonged vendetta, 
are characteristic of their existence. They often 
come in conflict with the law, owing to their pro- 
pensity for manufacturing illicit whiskey, and they 
invariably regard the revenue officer as their natural 
enemy. They themselves drink large quantities of 
their own ^'moonshine." 

The moral improvement among those who have 
come under the influence of the missions established 
by Satterlee is a fact testified to by those who are 
familiar with the conditions which existed previously. 
A politician, a Methodist, who was in the habit peri- 
odically of making campaign speeches to the moun- 
tain audiences, expressed his conviction that the 
change which had taken place was little short of mar- 
vellous. '*Mr. Satterlee,'' he declared, ''has done 
wonders for these people. I find everywhere more 
intelligent listeners. The people conduct themselves 
with greater propriety, they dress better, and seem 
to have a keener appreciation of moral issues.'' 

Satterlee's tact in dealing with these peculiar peo- 
ple, as shown in his respect for their prejudices, in 
his democratic ways, in his hearty recognition of 
their virtues, and in his refusal to employ any other 
means than moral suasion in his endeavors to eradi- 
cate evils, undoubtedly accounts largely for the great 
success he achieved. 



WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 97 

"Your preacher is just as common as we are," was 
the remark of one of his mountain flock to the lay- 
man in charge of the mission. This was intended as 
a high comphment to the simphcity of his manners 
and bearing. 

Many are the stories told of Satterlee's kind- 
heartedness and generosity to these poor people. A 
young boy, a cripple, was sent by him to the Johns 
Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for treatment, the„ 
money being supplied by himself or obtained i'rom 
others through his solicitation. One family, who 
was confronted with the necessity of obtaining a cer- 
tain sum of money in default of which the home 
would be sacrificed, obtained a loan from him with- 
out security, which it is pleasant to record was sub- 
sequently repaid. 

The ground for one of his chapels w^as given by a 
neighbor who distilled and sold whiskey on his prem- 
ises adjoining the building. After the chapel and 
school-house were built, Satterlee v/as pressed to 
take advantage of the law which prohibited the sale 

of liauor within a certain radius of a church or school. 

J. 

"They'll incorporate and put you out of business,'' 
remarked some of his friends to the donor of the 
land. 

"ril trust him not to do that/' was the reply. 

"No," said Satterlee, when the suggestion was 
made to him, "vv e can't do a thing of that kind ; v/e'll 
have to trust to moral suasion." 

During the church services the liquor dealer al> 



98 A FISHER OF MEN. 

stained from making sales, and ultimately gave up 
the business altogether, was baptized and confirmed, 
and became one of the staunchest supporters of the 
work. 

Satterlee fully appreciated the necessity of being 
regular and prompt in his attendance at the services 
which he held monthly in his mission chapels. When 
the designated Sunday came, he never permitted any- 
thing to interfere with his going. Whatever was the 
state of the weather, however bad the roads, he was 
always on hand. It was by no means an unusual 
thing for him when the weather made traveling hard, 
to leave Morganton on Sunday immediately after 
his service in the parish church, without waiting for 
his dinner. He would take a cold lunch with him 
and eat it on the way, rather than run the risk of 
arriving late at his destination. The mountain peo- 
ple, who, in many cases, themselves came a distance 
of several miles, were quick to appreciate his regu- 
larity, and he seldom lacked a good congregation. 
When he first began to hold these services, upon a 
very stormy day when the mud in the roads was up 
to the wheel hubs, he drove out only to find a mere 
handful present. A gentle rebuke expressive of his 
surprise that so few were in attendance when nothing 
ever prevented his coming was sufficient, and he 
never had occasion again to complain of their remiss- 
ness in this respect. 

That Satterlee was able to accomplish the difficult 
task of translating his ideas so that they could be 



WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 99 

fully comprehended by those among his hearers who 
were most illiterate, is proved by the comment made 
by one of the members of his mountain flock in the 
vernacular of the district, 'The preacher knows what 
kind o' fodder to give we 'uns." 

A teacher in charge of one of the mountain schools 
furnishes some interesting reminiscences of her life 
among these people and pays her loving tribute to 
Satterlee's memory. 

''When I first took up the work, Mr. Satterlee's 
injunction was, 'Use every means in your power to 
induce the people to send their children to school.' 
The school was free, even the books were donated. 
Mr. Satterlee felt that if the children could read and 
write, and had a fair understanding of arithmetic 
and grammar, they would then have a desire to reach 
out and gain more knowledge; and so have within 
them power to better themselves. 

"He was wonderfully gifted wath the ability to 
interest people. Once they knew him, it was a very 
easy matter to win their good will; for the average 
mountaineer is good-hearted, hospitable and unsus- 
pecting of ill, though often superstitious. 

"When I went down there, it seemed to me they 
had so little pleasure that I felt to start a debating 
club would be a good thing. Soon we had some 
really good talkers ; it was astonishing the short time 
it would take for us to settle the most important pub- 
lic matters in our club. The winning side would 
invariably say to me, Tlease tell Mr. Satterlee about 



Ci4^ 



loo A FISHER OF MEN. 

the debate, and that our side won/ There were a 
few girls connected with the club, but mostly boys 
vv'hose ages ranged from ten to fifty years — you see 
there were some old boys in that club. When Mr. 
Satterlee would come out again, he would remember 
what had been told him ; and it was a genuine pleas- 
ure to hear him talk to them about the club. They 
felt that he was really interested in their welfare, and 
they were not mistaken. 

"One Sunday afternoon we were expecting Bishop 
Satterlee out to the mission to preach the sermon and 
conduct the services, arid as I had to go a distance the 
previous week to look after some children, concluded 
to take along some notices of the coming visit of the 
Bishop, and fasten them on trees or some other con- 
spicuous place, hoping that by so doing a greater 
number would be induced to attend. I went into a 
store, in an out-of-the-way place, and, after having 
made a purchase, asked permission to place the notice 
near the door. I had never been there before, nor 
had I ever seen any of the family. Said the proprie- 
tor, 'Wal, what's it about, anyway?' I read the 
notice that Bishop Satterlee of Washington would be 
at the chapel, etc., etc. Said the man to his boy, 
'Jake, let the lady put it up. I reckon he's some kin 
to the preacher that is so mighty civil to us poor 
folks. Why, he'd shake hands with a man in his old 
clothes as quick as if he was dressed up in a white 
collar.' The proprietor put up the notice himself, and 



WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. loi 

I had the satisfaction of seeing him and 'Jake' at the 
service. 

"The people show their good feeHng toward one 
in many ways. If they admire a person very much, 
they are apt to name the first new baby after him. 
One very disagreeable morning, w^hile the hail and 
rain seemed to compete with each other as to which 
should possess the earth, and I could hardly see to 
drive, because of the storm, all at once my horse 
halted a little, and almost in front of him stumbled 
a little black boy about three years old, and close in 
his wake came mother calling in a shrill rasping 
voice, 'I say, you Churchill Satterlee Gordon, come 
here. I 'clare to massa if he ain't the triflenest no 
'count young 'un ever born'd.' I thought right there, 
how little there is in a name, to be sure. The Gordon 
was after the lay reader, who came out to our mis- 
sion, and who lived not far from the affectionate 
mother of the little image I had nearly run over. 

*Tt seemed wise to bring the people together as 
often as possible. We became interested in each 
other, and the results were good feeling generally. If 
a picnic were to be held, we always found out first 
whether Mr. Satterlee could be with us or not. We 
always waited his convenience, because we wanted a 
good time, and if he were with us, we were sure to 
have it. He was ever ready with suggestions for 
games, and his laugh was contagious. When the 
'tug of war' came, and one side showed weakness, he 
went to their rescue. Then what fun! Every one 



I02 A FISHER OF MEN. 

who had any pull in him would rush for the rope. 
When it was time for refreshments — and at a moun- 
tain picnic it comes early in the day — he would be in 
among the men. If one seat was more comfortable 
than another, he would insist upon some tired mother 
with a baby sitting there. The babies were regular 
attendants on all festival occasions. The male moun- 
taineer does not make a good nurse, so the mother 
wisely picks up the infant and starts off, and as the 
father does not like to lose sight of the family he goes 
too, and is always sure of a welcome. On Sundays 
the father usually feels called upon to turn his atten- 
tion to viewing the farm, and to go out to the bam 
and congratulate the mules and himself that it is a 
day of rest for them. The wife is the chief trans- 
gressor, and does the greatest amount of work on 
Sunday ; for they must eat, and Sunday is something 
of a feast day. 

"It was not unusual for one of the mission people 
to send me a message to go to them at once, that they 
were 'mighty bad, and reckoned that they had putty 
nigh retched the end of their rope.' In response to 
a message of this kind, I went to see a woman, who 
had a great deal to say about a long life misspent. 
I felt very anxious that Mr. Satterlee should see her ; 
her advantages had been so meagre, it seemed to me 
that the poor unhappy soul might find peace if the 
good priest, whom I knew and trusted, could talk to 
her. So I hurried off just as the sun was rising over 
the mountain. When I reached the rectory they had 



WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 103 

just finished breakfast. We were six miles from the 
woman's cabin, and Mr. Satterlee had a wedding to 
attend to at noon ; but he said certainly he would go 
at once. One of the lay readers at our mission went 
with him ; and as we knelt there, and I heard his kind 
voice raised in prayer to God in behalf of the poor 
woman, asking for mercy and forgiveness, I felt sure 
that the petition would be granted. The result was 
that the woman changed her life altogether, and lived 
for several months. The good of that visit was far- 
reaching. Three of her grandchildren were sent to 
school to us. Subsequently these with the mother 
were baptized, and the mother and eldest girl were 
also confirmed. 

"A gentleman said to me one day, ^Mr. Satterlee 
is very hard on horses, etc' A farmer standing near 
and hearing the conversation, remarked, 'Wal, he's a 
gentleman, he is, and if the mare had any sense she 
would be proud to haul such a man.' 

"The wedding of a mountain pair was celebrated 
in Grace Church, Morganton. The marriage was one 
of convenience altogether; but as the bride was past 
fifty, and the groom several years her senior, it was 
to be supposed they had reached years of discretion. 
I was honored with an invitation to the breakfast, 
which followed the ceremony. Some of the friends 
of the groom had prepared very nice refreshments. 
Mr. Satterlee was trying to preserve a serious man- 
ner, as the occasion called for, when suddenly the 
bride called out, 'Oh, shucks, let's go home. Them 



I04 A FISHER OF MEN. 

there hogs ain't been fed since last night.' She 
referred to the swine that were part inducement to 
the business transaction that had taken place that 
morning. I will never forget the expression on Mr. 
Satterlee's face. Yet he was just as kind and 
thoughtful of that uncouth old woman as if she were 
a lady. He was so considerate of every one. I never 
knew him to do a selfish act, or an unkind one. 

'*When the mission people would take in greens 
that they might have a hand in the trimming of the 
parish church, at Christmas, he would be sure to set 
them in a conspicuous place, where they could see 
them, and be assured that their contributions to the 
church decorations were appreciated. 

''When the time came for him to leave us, I met a 
man whom Mr. Satterlee had helped to overcome a 
bad habit, and said this strong man, with tears in his 
eyes, 'How can we let him go? I feel all broken up 
over this.' 

"I will always remember the early celebration of 
the Holy Communion held at the mission after there 
had been several confirmed. He came out frequently 
in the early morning; it was so sweet and peaceful. 
As I look back to those days, I think now as I did 
then, that the work was such a good one; and I 
rejoice at the privilege of having had Mr. Satterlee 
as a leader and guide in it; always ready to encour- 
age one with some apt quotation, 'Be not weary in 
well doing; for in due time ye shall reap if ye faint 



WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 105 

not/ Dear Mr. Satterlee! The world is better for 
the brief time he was in it." 

A clergyman from the North who visited Satterlee 
in Morganton, gives the following account of his 
visit to one of the mission stations : 

''I well remember a Sunday afternoon, a little more 
that seven years ago, on which I drove out to the 
most remote of these missions. The ruts were so 
deep in the roads that the axles of the buggy now 
and again touched the road between them. When I 
commented on this to the lay reader in charge, he told 
me of an afternoon when it had taken Mr. Satterlee 
and him four hours to drive the eight miles, being 
compelled several times to stop and pry the buggy 
out of the mud with fence rails. He assured me that 
since the opening of the chapel two years before, 
there had not been a Sunday on which the service was 
omitted. The chapel stood in the woods; there was 
not a house in sight. But it was crowded to the doors 
with typical mountaineers, some of whom I was told 
had driven twelve miles in springless wagons drawn 
by oxen. The Methodist circuit rider had ridden 
there on an aged mule of preternatural gravity. The 
women had brought their babies, and were dipping 
snuff all the time. But the congregation was reverent 
and earnest. The people filled the seats. They stood 
so thick in the doorway that it was difficult for us to 
get in. They sat all over the steps of the chancel 
platform. They sat on the window sills, and boys 
and girls fought for favorite branches of trees from 



io6 A FISHER OF MEN. 

which they could see and hear. I was informed that 
the majority of those in that congregation had never 
been in any place of public worship till that chapel 
was built. It was near this place that Sister Ella, a 
deaconess working in the early days, asked a sixteen- 
year-old boy if he had ever heard of Jesus Christ, 
and received the startling reply, 'No, he don't live 
near here. Perhaps he lives out on the big road.' 
While we were there lay readers were conducting 
services at the two other chapels, and that morning 
and evening lay readers conducted the services at the 
colored church, while I officiated at the parish church, 
Mr. Satterlee having gone with the Bishop to Valle 
Crucis, to forward the mission work at that point." 

One who was present on the occasion of a Con- 
firmation Service held at the Chapel of the Good 
Shepherd has written a graphic description of the 
scene, which must have been quite Apostolic in its 
rustic simplicity : 

"On Easter Day, 1898, the Bishop of Washington, 
at the request of the Bishop of the Diocese, came to 
visit the Chapel of the Good Shepherd. It was a 
memorable afternoon. The skies were bright and 
the air was fragrant with the flowers of early spring. 
Birds were twittering in the branches. The congre- 
gation came from all sides, on horseback, on foot, 
and in strange primitive equipages, many of the peo- 
ple bearing a striking resemblance to the country folk 
described so vividly by Shakespeare. The chapel was 
a one-story house, with a wide piazza in front The 



WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 107 

walls of the interior were dressed in festoons of 
white, by the deaconess and her assistants, and 
flowers were everywhere. We came both to a disap- 
pointment and an agreeable surprise. The room 
itself could not hold one-tenth of the congregation, 
and therefore the services were held on the piazza in 
the open air. The diminutive organ was brought 
out, and the choir took their places. The old moun- 
taineers ranged themselves in a semi-circle, sitting on 
logs, which were lying about in profusion, eyeing the 
Bishop in his robes as though he were some wild 
animal, who had been caught and brought in for the 
occasion, and nudging each other, with a broad grin 
on their faces. Soon, however, these simple folk felt 
the reverence of the occasion, and the change which 
came over the hundreds present was very marked. 

"After the Bishop had spoken, explaining the rite 
of Confirmation in simple words, he laid his hands 
upon the heads of those who knelt before him. The 
scene was a memorable one. I felt as though I was 
living in some other century, and was looking upon 
people who were drinking in the first experiences of 
our Church with her beautiful services." 

Material for telling more in detail the story of the 
interesting and unique work among the mountain 
people which Satterlee was able to accomplish 
through enlisting the services of the members of the 
Brotherhood of St. Andrew happily exists in the 
form of a graphic description from his own pen. It 
is probably no exaggeration to say that this account 



io8 A FISHER OF MEN. 

constitutes the most heroic record of missionary work 
ever undertaken and carried on by any body of lay- 
men belonging to the Episcopal Church. The article 
was first published in the January number of the 
St. Andrew's Cross, 1900, and was subsequently 
issued in pamphlet form by the Morganton Chapter 
of the Brotherhood. Nothing could be more satis- 
factory than to have the story of this remarkable 
missionary enterprise set forth by him who was the 
leader and guide in it. 

"What Laymen Can Do In Mission Work" is the 
title under which the article appeared. Both in its 
title and the use of the plural pronoun the account 
exemplifies the characteristic modesty of the man and 
his habit of giving to others associated with himself 
in the enterprises which he initiated and carried on 
their full measure of credit. 

'Tn the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, North 
Carolina and Tennessee there lives a class of people 
very unlike the majority of the citizens of the United 
States, with customs and ideas peculiar to themselves. 
Many of them have a keen, native intelligence, 
though they possess neither education nor knowledge 
of the world. These mountaineers are often mis- 
judged or unappreciated, and comparatively little has 
been done to plant the Church among- the scattered 
communities in w^hich they live. One reason for this 
oversight may have been the opinion that our Church, 
with its liturgical service, would not appeal to, or be 
understood by an uneducated people, ignorant of the 



WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 109 

conventionalities of present-day life. To be a 
Churchman requires intelligence, but not necessarily 
education. A confusion of the two terms, intelli- 
gence and education, is the cause of many a failure to 
understand aggressive work in winning souls for 
Christ. 

"The General Convention of 1895, realizing the 
important character of this Piedmont mountain 
region, especially in North Carolina, set apart the 
western portion of the State as the Missionary Dis- 
trict of Asheville. A few months before, a Chapter 
of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew had been estab- 
lished in Grace Parish, Morganton. The question 
which immediately confronted its members was, 
What special united work shall the Chapter under- 
take? The answer was unmistakably written in the 
valleys and upon the rugged peaks of the everlasting 
hills. These mountain sentinels beckoned us to come 
to teach the m.ountaineers the Gospel message. In 
several portions of the surrounding country the vis- 
itations of a Christian minister of any name were of 
rare occurrence. So the Brotherhood Chapter deter- 
mined to start a mission. One of the members agreed 
to become a lay reader and catechist, and to go every 
Sunday afternoon to this point, eight miles distant 
from the church, for the rector had the services of the 
parish church at Morganton to look after. In a little 
log hut, which, after the Brotherhood, was named St. 
Andrew's, the first services were held. The people 
seemed to appreciate them and the Brotherhood men, 



no A FISHER OF MEN. 

for the lay reader and his helpers were faithful and 
enthusiastic. 

^'Successful work of any description will generally 
expand; and, in our case, St. Andrew's Mission was 
succeeded by another, named The Good Shepherd. 
Instead of an old log hut, as before, with cracks in 
the walls and a fireplace of the last century, a palatial 
'country store' was placed at our disposal by some 
friendly Methodists and Baptists. Fortunately, our 
parish church contained additional material for lay 
readers and Sunday-school teachers. A second 
Brotherhood man consented to go each Sunday to 
this new mission to conduct service and make an 
address. Four months later a third mission was 
started, called at first the Mission of the Messiah, but 
for obvious reasons renamed soon afterward St. 
George's. 

"We were thus responsible for three missions. The 
rector arranged to visit each one Sunday afternoon a 
month, while the lay readers gave weekly services. 
Before long Sunday-schools were found to be even 
more necessary than church services, experience lead- 
ing the rector and the Brotherhood men to realize 
how much they could accomplish by little additional 
effort in this direction. As the faults in the work 
became apparent we corrected them one by one. A 
day school was seen to be necessary to teach the chil- 
dren how to read the Bible and the Prayer Book and 
how to study their Sunday-school lessons at home. 
Then, too, the young people needed looking after 



WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. m 

during the week. So, a deaconess was sent to us by 
the Bishop. We had often thought how much good 
could be accompHshed in this way, but we had never 
dared to hope for such a privilege, and we willingly 
solicited funds for her support. It seemed to be the 
will of God that our work should prosper. Next, 
three chapels were built for us within a year by kind 
friends. "St. George's Chapel was given by St. 
George's Sunday-school in New York, the others by 
individual subscriptions. The influence of a deacon- 
ess living among the people soon became apparent. 
Her success was almost phenomenal. At present 
there are seven women teachers, in charge of five 
flourishing day schools, and endeavoring to build up 
Christian character generally. These teachers work 
in full harmony and sympathy with the Brotherhood. 
In the Church service and Sunday-school the lay 
reader acts as the rector's deputy, but in the temporal 
afifairs of the mission the teacher in charge has full 
sway. This has proved a wise arrangement. During 
the past few months the care of the colored mission 
services in Morganton has been undertaken by mem- 
bers of the Chapter, and the outlook is quite hopeful. 
Ours is thus almost entirely country rescue mission 
work, and oftentimes we look with envious eyes upon 
other Chapters which are so successful in ways in 
which w^e are deficient. 

"So much for what we undertook to do. What, it 
may be asked, has been the result ? Does our Church, 
with her service of Common Praver, attract and hold 



112 A FISHER OF MEN. 

the uneducated mountain people? In reply we are 
able to give an unqualified affirmative. But first, 
What aroused and perpetuated this work in a small 
country parish, where there was little money to help 
in conducting the missions? The rector was not 
ubiquitous and could not attend all the services. The 
congregation of the parish church was unable to sup- 
port an assistant. The mountain people might have 
given salary in vegetables and farm produce, but they 
could not contribute money. The Bishop was power- 
less to give us any of the meagre funds at his disposal 
to support an additional clergyman. The answer is, 
the Brotherhood of St. Andrew made this work pos- 
sible. It could not have been accomplished without 
the interest and co-operation of the laymen, and their 
interest could not have been aroused without the sim- 
ple yet thorough organization of the Brotherhood., 
Secondly, this illustrates the truth of an old, though 
somewhat disputed, principle, that mission work to be 
successful to the greatest degree must be undertaken 
in connection with a parish church. Isolated missions 
wath their monthly or bi-monthly services are not as 
thriving as those conducted in union with a prosper- 
ous parish. The reason is obvious. Interdependence 
of obligation arouses interest. It is good for the par- 
ish church; it strengthens the mission. Above all, it 
illustrates the principle of the organic unity of the 
Catholic Church. When on Easter and Christmas, 
these people of the missions come six and eight miles, 
on foot, on mule back and in springless wagons over 



WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. "S 

the worst possible roads, with their Sunday-schools, 
each carrying its banner, to join in a carol service at 
the parish church, the sight is inspiring. It brings to 
the mission school children a consciousness that the 
Church is their spiritual home, while it does the peo- 
ple of Grace Church and, in fact, the whole commu- 
nity a vast amount of good to view the old farm 
wagons drawn by mules and tied to the hitching 
posts of that Church which is sometimes called 'the 
Church of the rich.' 

''Have the mission people shown their appreciation, 
of the services? And if so, in what manner? Lay- 
reading, of course, is never as popular and satisfac- 
tory as services conducted by an experienced parish 
priest. The lay readers realize this and they have 
never once infringed upon the prerogative of the 
pastor. A few individuals who loudly affirm that 
*lay services are no better than no services,' have on 
occasions escaped from the chapels, when they 
awaited a clergyman and discovered that it was the 
lay reader who unexpectedly appeared — a lawyer, or 
an insurance man, or a grain merchant; but such 
exhibitions of displeasure have been rare. The peo- 
ple came to these missions because tney found they 
could meet God there, CA^en if it were a layman who 
endeavored to point Him out. On a recent Sunday, 
an average day, there were two hundred and sixty 
people attending the services. The number of bap- 
tisms, in the neighborhood of fifty, shows the import- 
ance the people place upon this Sacrament. Many 



114 A FISHER OF MEN. 

have been confirmed, while nine-tenths of the number 
who have been confirmed receive the Lord's Supper 
whenever an opportunity presents itself. During the 
year the aggregate attendance has reached fifteen 
thousand. 

''Sometimes it has been most difficult to reach the 
chapels on account of the inclemency of the weather 
and other reasons, but neither rain, snow nor mud 
has kept the lay readers from their duty. Frequently 
the rivers have been so high that one's feet had to be 
rested on the dash-board, or one has been compelled 
to stand on the seat when the buggy was partly sub- 
merged by high waters. The good-natured endur- 
ance of such slight discomforts has won the respect 
and affection of the people. The first man to be con- 
firmed was not singled out by the rector and urged to 
join a class for preparation. He came of his own 
accord to one of the laymen and announced his desire 
to be confirmed. When he was asked why he had 
made the request, his reply was that the devotion 
which the laymen had shown convinced him that the 
Church they represented was a Church which fostered 
robust manhood, and therefore the Church of which 
he desired to be a member. 'People from other 
churches,' he said, ' have come out here to hold ser- 
vices, but as soon as something has happened to dis- 
courage them, or as soon as bad weather began to 
make traveling unpleasant, they stopped coming. We 
like the Brotherhood men because they are good 
weather, bad weather, all the year round, workers.' 



WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 115 

'Tn what respect are the people bettered? In the 
same way that the unenhghtened people in New York 
or any other city are influenced and bettered by con- 
tact with the Church;— in appearance and manners, 
by an ambition to read and write, and by their grow- 
ing appreciation of the worship of the Book of Com- 
mon Prayer. 

"We have adopted different systems of introducing 
the Church Service at different missions. At one, we 
began the first Sunday with a leaflet ; at another, with 
selections from the leaflet, marking the portions to be 
used with a red cross. At a third, we began with the 
'portion of Scripture,' the 'few remarks' and the 
'extemporaneous prayers,' and after ten months intro- 
duced the leaflet. Each of these methods has its 
advantages as well as its drawbacks. The use of the 
liturgical service at once is apt, if not to antagonize, 
to puzzle and intimidate the people. On the other 
hand, waiting to feel the way sometimes makes it 
awkward to change the method of worship and to 
give a satisfactory reason for doing so. The congre- 
gation is afraid to respond at first, but enjoys it after- 
ward. The people soon learn to feel that they have 
a share in the worship, and participation creates inter- 
est. A man from one of the chapels of another 
Christian body w^ho examined our Prayer Book 
exclaimed, T shall never be satisfied until I have gone 
forw^ard before the congregation and received Con- 
firmation, thereby acknowledging to the world, in the 
presence of God, my repentance and receiving for- 



ii6 A FISHER OF MEN. 

giveness of all my sins, and strength and gifts to 
])ersevere in the Christian life.' 

^'To show how the people have improved is a diffi- 
cult matter, but to us it is unmistakably evident. We 
remember years ago when one of the women of the 
parish, in the goodness of her heart, drove sixteen 
miles out into the country through mud axle deep, to 
teach the children the Christmas carols, and after 
singing one of the carols alone about six times, 
inquired — perhaps with a little righteous indigna- 
tion — 'Children, why don't you join in?' The 
answer was far more chilling than the cold breezes 
and more aggravating than the mudholes, but beauti- 
fully frank: 'We didn't come yere to sing; we come 
to hear you 'uns sing.' Now things are different. 
Last Christmas the people at one mission would not 
allow us to send a wagon to bring them from the 
country to the carol services. 'We wish to take care 
of ourselves,' was their answxr; and a very self- 
respecting answer it was. Recently we inquired why 
certain mountain children knew so much poetry, and 
discovered that they read all the books and papers 
which came into their homes and learned all the 
poetry which appealed to them — the result of the 
schools. 'My, how they do enjoy them verses !' was 
their mother's expression of gratitude. 

"There are many picturesque features in the lives 
of these people. On the winter evenings while wait- 
ing outside the chapel for the service or entertainment 
to commence, they build a large bonfire and gather 



WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 117 

within the warm, bright glow of the flames; the 
women in large calico sun-bonnetvS, regardless of the 
Aveather; the men tall and gaunt, with deeply lined 
faces ; the young people laughing and joking. When 
the time comes to go home, they light their pine 
torches and start in the darkness on the long home- 
ward tramp, the men sometimes carrying the chil- 
dren. Very often streams have to be waded ; that is, 
if the crossing log has been swept away; and when 
the cozy log house is reached, we may be sure that 
the tired parents and sleepy children appreciate the 
comforts of the wide beds, covered with their patch- 
work quilts, the result of the women's work during 
the winter days. When the mud is so deep that walk- 
ing is impossible, a family mule is brought to the 
mission, with as many as it can hold upon its back, 
the journey to the chapel and home again being slow 
but sure. As there is nobody at home with whom to 
leave the baby, the mother is obliged to take her little 
infant to church with her, and one becomes so accus- 
tomed to the various wails and cries, that after a 
service in one of the chapels the stillness in the parish 
church seems abnormally restful. 

"It is a touching sight to see a whole family come 
to Baptism. A father, mother and five children were 
baptized last winter, beginning with the oldest and 
going so, in order, down to the baby. 

"A marriage always draws a great crowd and 
seems to impress the people very much. The last one 
presented a difficult problem, as the young woman 



ii8 A FISHER OF MEN. 

refused to let go of her father's hand, and the groom 
was too shy to come forward. One man in the con- 
gregation was heard to say, in an awed whisper, 
'Lor', I could never go through that/ 

"The Mothers' Meetings are always well attended, 
and are doing much to teach and elevate the women 
in their home life, and also to give them practical, 
common-sense knowledge. The Progressive Clubs 
are holding the interest of the young people and are 
improving them wonderfully. Whereas, the subject 
for debate at the first meeting was, 'Which is better, 
a horse or a mule?' 'The Future of the Philippines' 
was the last subject under discussion. 

"Our Brotherhood men have found out the old 
truth that he / 

/ 
" 'Who gives himself with alms feeds three, 

Himself, his hungering neighbor and Me.' 

"Working for others helps self almost more than 
it does them. It creates in one a manly ambition; it 
engenders humility. Without any cant or exaggera- 
tion the rector of the missions can say that, in several 
places he has seen the whole religious tone of the 
community raised by the life and example of the 
Brotherhood workers. 

"Nothing is so interesting as human nature. There 
is a God-ward side to every character, and divine 
instincts that will respond to every appeal that is 
really made in the Name of Christ. Our American 
life is teeming with opportunities, but it requires 



WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 119 

courage to seize them; — not the courage of the sol- 
dier on the battlefield; not the courage of the financier 
or of the statesman, but of the Christian who dares 
to speak for Christ, in Christ's own way, through 
His Church." 



CHAPTER V. 

TRINITY CHURCH, COLUMBIA. 

The work which Satterlee was doing in Morgan- 
ton began, as time went on, to attract much attention 
throughout the South, and particularly in neighbor- 
ing dioceses. He came to be widely regarded as an 
energetic and successful man, and it was, therefore, 
inevitable that prominent parishes in that section 
seeking a rector should have their thoughts directed 
toward him. In the spring of 1900, Trinity Church, 
Columbia, S. C, the largest parish in the Carolinas, 
numbering over five hundred communicants, lost its 
rector by his removal to Richmond, and the vestry 
began to take steps to fill the vacancy. A former 
parishioner of Grace Church, Morganton, a member 
of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and a close friend 
and great admirer of the rector's, had removed to 
Columbia about a year previous to this time. Know- 
ing that the pastorate of Trinity was vacant, he men- 
tioned Satterlee's name to one of the wardens, who, 
in turn, brought the matter before the vestry. This 
gentleman was straightway invited to appear before 
that body and give information in detail about the 
character and attainments of his former pastor. So 

120 



COLUMBIA. 12 1 

enthusiastic was he in his remarks and so laudatory 
in his statements, that he succeeded in creating a 
strong desire to secure Satterlee for the rectorship. 
A^s a member of the vestry in speaking of the matter 
afterwards, said, ''We really did not believe that any 
such man existed, but if he did, we felt we must have 
him." 

In reading the following letter written after Satter- 
lee's death by this gentleman who proposed his name, 
one can well imagine how eloquently he must have 
advocated the choice of his friend for the vacant pas- 
torate of Trinity. The communication is addressed 
to Mrs. Churchill Satterlee : 

'Tt has seemed almost impossible for me to dry my 
eyes or steady my hand to write, when at times I 
have begun to realize the great blow that has fallen 
upon us all. I had no scheme of life, I might say no 
dream of life in which Churchill Satterlee, my friend 
and brother, as well as rector, was not a vital factor. 
It never occurred to me that my advancing and 
declining years would not be comforted and cheered 
by the splendid fellowship which has grown and 
strengthened between us since the beginning of our 
acquaintance. That we did not correspond as fre- 
quently as some friends do is of no greater signifi- 
cance than that when thrown wath him, I did not say 
all that I had meant to say to him. There was some- 
thing satisfying about his very existence and the 
supremest comfort and delight in his presence. No 
misunderstandings could live between us, and to me 



122 A FISHER OF MEN. 

as to many another, he was the most real exempHfi- 
cation of true and living Christianity that could be 
presented. In the pressure and crush of business I 
have stopped and thought of him, and the days we 
have spent together, of our long; rides, with his arm 
affectionately around my shoulders; of the evenings 
in his study in Morganton, when he would speak of 
you and your coming to share his life and work; of 
the days when you and he lived there together; 
and afterward when you came again into my life in 
Columbia, so naturally, that the existence of the inter- 
val of more than a year was forgotten in the joy of 
reunion. All these have often, I might say daily, 
come back to me accompanied by the hope, aye, the 
belief that they were all to be lived over again. 

"It must be that 'beyond this bourne of time and 
place,' all this is to be, and more which now we can- 
not understand, but which he knows, just as we felt 
that he always knew, even as he walked among men. 

"Others have spoken and written of him better 
than I am able to do, but none have said more than I 
have always known, and to none will his life be more 
of a living reality than to me. 

"The hymn, sung as his body was carried from 
the church, was the refrain of the glorious song of 
his life; the message of his spirits to his people, 'May 
Jesus Christ he praised,' '' 

A delegation from the vestry was sent to Morgan- 
ton to make a personal investigation, which resulted 
favorably, and an immediate call to the rectorship 



COLUMBIA. 123 

was unanimously extended. This call was delivered 
in person by the two wardens and the assurance was 
received that it would be duly considered. Satterlee 
went to Columbia shortly afterwards to look over 
the field. 

While there he met the vestry as a body and in- 
quired particularly whether in case of his acceptance, 
the congregation would object to his undertaking 
mission work in poor communities, and on occasions 
bringing the people of such mission to Trinity 
Church for united worship. He was assured that no 
obstacle would be thrown in the way of his doing 
any good work, or in the methods adopted by him 
for accomplishing it, provided, of course, that he 
would not leave undone the proper ministration to 
Trinity Church. 

He went from Columbia to Washington and thence 
back to Morganton, from which place he wrote 
accepting the call, promising to take up his duties on 
the first Sunday in January. 

The following is the text of the call issued by the 
vestry, with Satterlee's reply accepting the same : 






November 5, 1900. 
Rev. and dear Sir: — 
"As Senior Warden of Trinity Church of this city, 
and as such, in the absence of a rector, Chairman of 
the Vestry, I have the honor and the very sincere 
pleasure of officially asking you to accept the rector- 
ship of this parish, to which you were unanimously 



124 A FISHER OF MEN. 

elected by our vestry on the third day of this month. 
At a meeting of our congregation held this afternoon 
after due notice this action of the vestry was unani^ 
mously approved, 

''We ofifer you a salary of $2,100 a year, payable in 
monthly installments, and the use of a convenient and 
commodious rectory. 

"In behalf of the vestry and congregation I express 
the sincere wish that you will favorably consider this- 
call. 

''With respect, 

"Faithfully yours, 

"RoBT. W. Shand. 
"To Rev. Churchill Satterlee, 

"Morganton, N. C." 

"November 21, 1900. 
"Grace Church Rectory, 
"Morganton, N. C. 
"Robert W. Shand, Esq., 

"Trinity Church Vestry. 
"My dear Sir : 

"After careful and earnest consideration of the calf 
extended to me by Trinity Church, Columbia, I have 
at last decided to accept it. 

"It is not without some hesitancy, that I follow in 
the illustrious steps of such men as the past rectors 
of Trinity Church, but by your kind indulgence, and 
by the grace of God, I believe we shall be happy in 
our relations as pastor and people. 



COLUMBIA. 125 

''I suggest Epiphany, January 6, 1901, the first 
Sunday of the month, as a convenient day to assume 
my duties as rector of your Church. I should Uke 
six weeks vacation in summer in order to be with 
our parents, about which they feel very strongly. 

''Hoping that God will bless our united efforts in 
the upbuilding of His Kingdom, I am, my dear sir, 
with great respect and esteem, 

''Sincerely yours, 

"Churchill Satterlee." 

In a previous chapter it w^as stated that Satterlee 
had refused several flattering offers to leave Mor- 
ganton and accept w^ork elsewhere, but that he pre- 
ferred to remain where he was, being contented and 
happy with his lot. Possibly he might have pre- 
served this intention and resisted all inducements to 
make any change had it not been for considerations 
which he regarded as imperative. His salary of six 
hundred dollars at Morganton, now that he had a 
family growing up, was wholly insufficient for his 
needs, modest as they always were, and although his 
father was willing to extend his financial assistance, 
his ability to do so had lessened since his acceptance 
of the Bishopric of Washington, and Satterlee felt 
that he ought to relieve him of that burden. More- 
over, for some time past the fact had impressed itself 
upon him that he needed the intellectual stimulus only 
capable of being fotmd in a larger and more varied 
communitv, if he was to make the most of his talents. 



126 A FISHER OF MEN. 

Besides these considerations, he appreciated the fact 
that his missionary labors in Morganton had about 
reached their hmits, and, with the organization he 
had perfected, could be easily carried on by another 
hand. But in order to assure after his departure the 
continuance of the important work which he had 
established among the mountaineers, and to provide 
the necessary funds for maintenance, he brought the 
matter to the attention of the General Board of the 
Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, asking 
that permanent provision be made for carrying it on. 
This the Society, on his representations endorsed and 
approved by its agents who were familiar with the 
w^ork, readily agreed to do. But, in addition to these 
considerations, Satterlee had convinced himself that 
a great work awaited him in Columbia among the 
mill people, of whom several thousand were settled 
upon the outskirts of the town, and whose religious 
needs appealed strongly to his missionary spirit. In 
leaving Morganton and going to Columbia, Satterlee 
felt he was justified, not merely on purely personal 
grounds, but that he would thereby secure a wider 
field for his energies and opportunity for the fuller 
development of his abilities. 

Satterlee entered upon his duties in Trinity Church 
on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 1901. 

The parting from his parishioners in Morganton 
was a sad one for both rector and people. The 
impress which he had made on the whole community 
was so deep and abiding, that when his death 



COLUMBIA. 127 

occurred three years afterwards, the entire town was 
plunged in mourning, and gave visible and vocal tes- 
timony to the universal respect and affection felt for 
him by all classes and creeds, in a special memorial 
meeting, the details of which are reserved for narra- 
tion in the final chapter. The sorrow on Satterlee's 
part at severing the relations which bound him to his 
Morganton flock, was equally sincere, and his affec- 
tionate interest in those among whom he passed the 
first years of his ministry continued to display itself 
in many ways. 

Columbia, where Satterlee now took up his resi- 
dence, was one of the most thriving among the 
smaller cities of the South. As the capital of the 
State it drew^ to itself representatives of the chief 
political and legal elements in the commonwealth. 
Originally built for the sole purpose of providing a 
seat for the State government, the city for many 
years preserved this exclusive character, and only 
since the war has developed aspects of commercial 
and industrial life. Burned to the ground during the 
Civil War, Columbia quickly rose from its ashes and 
through the courage and enterprise of its citizens was 
rebuilt on more substantial lines, and to-day, with its 
noble Capitol, its State and public institutions, its 
fine business buildings, its State College, and well- 
appointed public schools, its dignified church edifices, 
and its many attractive homes, furnishes ample evi- 
dence of the public spirit and thrift of its inhabitants. 

Trinity Church was one of the most important and 
9 



128 A FISHER OF MEN. 

influential parishes in the South, both from the num- 
ber of its communicants and the character and social 
prestige of the congregation, which comprised the 
elite of the city. The welcome accorded the new 
rector was cordial in the extreme. There was never 
any question regarding Satterlee's Northern birth 
and proclivities. He was made to feel at once his 
perfect acceptability in his Southern environment. 
The vestry was composed mainly of Confederate 
veterans of the Civil War, and the fact was remarked 
at the institution of the new rector, that the spectacle 
of a young Northern man receiving his induction 
into a conservative Southern parish at the hand of a 
Bishop who had himself fought on the Confederate 
side, and surrounded by a group of men almost all of 
whom bore wounds received in the great fratricidal 
conflict, was of unique interest. 

In connection with Satterlee's first appearance in 
the chancel, a ludicrous incident is related which, at 
the time, to himself certainly, aflPorded small occasion 
for risibility. It seems that the trunk containing his 
supply of vestments went astray en route between 
Morganton and Columbia, so that when Sunday 
came he found himself without his clerical habili- 
ments. There was nothing to do but to borrow^ a 
cassock and surplice from a brother priest. As Sat- 
terlee stood over six feet in his stockings and was 
proportionately big of frame and broad of shoulders, 
and as the other man was small of stature and lightly 
built, the vestments were anything but a good fit, — 



COLUMBIA. 129 

in fact, the grotesque appearance of their new rector 
with abbreviated cassock and sleeves coming only 
just below the elbows, was the occasion of much sup- 
pressed amusement on the part of members of the 
congregation. This incident, however, served, as a 
member of the parish afterwards remarked, to in- 
crease the respect felt for him, because it was plainly 
evident if he was built on generous lines physically, 
he was possessed of a small supply of personal vanity. 

One who was present on the occasion gives a 
description of Satterlee's bearing under the trying 
ordeal to which he was subjected. 

''He had to face a church crowded with strangers,, 
the majority of whom looked upon him as simply a, 
mountain missionary. He exhibited absolutely no> 
hesitation or self-consciousness. His rendering of 
the service, always impressive, was this time superb, 
and when he came to the sermon, which was not the 
one prepared for the occasion, he more than held his 
own. There were many who came to criticise, and 
even friends from North Carolina who feared the 
ordeal for him, but as he proceeded a wave of reac- 
tion seemed to sweep over the entire congregation, 
and when the service was over, the people seemed to 
vSay with one voice, as they left the church, 'He's the 
man.' " 

Two weeks after Satterlee entered upon his duties 
his little son Yates was stricken down with smallpox,, 
and the family found itself quarantined in the rec- 
tory. The sympathy of the whole community went 



I30 A FISHER OF MEN. 

out to the rector and his wife in their misfortune and 
anxiety, and, though debarred from offering their 
personal ministrations, his parishioners found many 
methods of expressing their deep concern and friendly 
solicitude. After the second week, as the case was 
only a mild one, Satterlee withdrew from the house 
in order to attend to his parish duties and was able 
to communicate with his wife only through the tele- 
phone or at a distance from the street. It was a 
severe trial for him, but it had one good result, in 
that his trouble served to draw his people closer to 
him and to early cement the bond which united pas- 
tor and flock. 

While Satterlee enjoyed intensely the society of 
his friends, and always kept open house for his par- 
ishioners, carrying his hospitality so far as almost to 
make of his rectory a parish house, — he w^as yet a 
man singularly domestic in his tastes, and took the 
keenest delight in the companionship of his wife and 
children. The contrast between the lonely years 
spent in Morganton before his second marriage and 
his happy domestic life subsequently was most 
marked. 

Satterlee's immediate predecessor was an eloquent 
and popular preacher, and the knowledge of this fact 
caused him many misgivings regarding his ability to 
satisfy the expectations of his new flock. He was 
wont to acknowledge humbly his own shortcomings 
in this respect. He strongly felt that his people were 
rightfully entitled to the best he could give them, and 



COLUMBIA. 131 

he determined forthwith to make himself more pro- 
ficient in his prophetic office. In Morganton, among 
the simple and kindly folk who constituted his par- 
ishioners, he felt that he was addressing a little body 
of friends to whom he could speak in terms of famil- 
iarity and freedom, who loved him too much to be 
critical, but in the case of the conservative and cul- 
tured people who comprised his congregation in 
Trinity Church, Columbia, he realized that the pres- 
ence of a more critical spirit demanded a correspond- 
ing effort on his part. While his sermons never lost 
their simplicity of thought and expression, a gradual 
improvement in their form and substance was notice- 
able. Particularly was this the case in his extempo- 
raneous addresses. One of his Morganton parish- 
ioners, a lady of culture and critical judgment, in 
speaking of his first attempt at extemporaneous 
preaching, said to the writer: 'Tt was positively 
pitiful to hear him. He seemed unable to utter a 
coherent sentence. His thoughts appeared to have 
deserted him and he floundered helplessly through 
his address, scarcely uttering a connected thought. 
It was a great relief to us when he had finished. 
When subsequently I heard him preach in Columbia, 
I was amazed at the improvement that had taken 
place. He spoke with ease and fluency and was able 
apparently to give full expression to his thoughts. 
I congratulated him warmly upon the improvement, 
and told him how surprised I was at his success, and 
added that I believed he would m.ake a fine extempo- 



132 A FISHER OF MEN. 

raneous speaker if he would persevere in it. His face 
lit up with an expression of keen pleasure, as he 
remarked with boyish naivete, 'Do you really think 
so, Mrs. X. ?' I assured him I was perfectly sincere.'' 

Of Satterlee's preaching, one who was very close 
to him, but whose relationship did not impair his dis- 
criminating judgment, writes in response to a letter 
of inquiry : 

**You speak of Churchiirs sermons. These were 
not eloquent, for Churchiirs mind was creative, 
rather than analytical or logical. He had always a 
great yearning to help his people. He knew what he 
wanted to say, but only slowly learned the art of say- 
ing it in a way that his people would understand 
what he meant. 

''The criticism that I have heard more than once 
from his most intelligent parishioners was, that while 
other sermonizers challenged a deeper interest, or 
w^ere more eloquent than he, nevertheless they derived 
more help from Churchill's sermons than those of 
many others, because he always gave them some life 
lesson, which they took home to their hearts; — some 
vital truth which inspired their faith, and which they 
could live by. 

"Personally, I have not read any of Churchill's 
sermons for a year or more, and although he had 
greatly improved since that time, and his sermons 
were really more helpful to the men of his congrega- 
tion than those of his very eloquent predecessor, 
nevertheless, I am inclined to the belief that it was 



COLUMBIA. 133 

his own personal influence, rather than the words 
which he spoke, which produced this effect." 

One of the wardens of Trinity, in a communica- 
tion addressed to the writer, speaks in the following 
appreciative terms of Satterlee's character and work : 

**Mr. Satterlee vSoon impressed the whole commu- 
nity with the belief that his whole heart was in his 
work; that he had really attained to that Christian 
eminence where it was 'none for self and all for 
Thee.' He was a stranger to envy. He worked for 
the good of others, absolutely indifferent whether 
credit was given to him for what was accomplished. 
After his death a good Presbyterian remarked, 'Mr. 
Satterlee was one of the most catholic-spirited men I 
ever met,' and a Baptist minister said, T never knew 
a man who was more nearly the perfect Christian.' 

"He found the ladies of the congregation organ- 
ized into a Women's Guild, with committees charged 
with separate departments of church work, desig- 
nated as Visiting Chapter, Chancel Chapter, Church- 
yard Chapter, Industrial Chapter, Beneficial Chap- 
ter, and Church Chapter. There was also an active 
branch of the Women's Auxiliary and an organiza- 
tion of young ladies called Daughters of the Holy 
Cross. All these were continued by Mr. Satterlee. 
A branch of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew had 
been previously organized. This he revitalized and 
enlarged. He also organized into groups, the 'Men 
of Trinity,' the 'Boys of Trinity,' and the 'Junior 



134 A FISHER OF MEN. 

Boys of Trinity/ and established for the girls the 
'Junior Auxiliary/ 

"Under his ministrations, congregation and 
Sunday-school grew in size. He was universally 
esteemed. As a preacher he would not be called elo- 
quent, but earnest, sensible and instructive, with an 
improvement manifest every year. His life was a 
sermon. I have never heard of one single act or 
utterance of Mr. Satterlee criticised as being incon- 
sistent with his Christian profession. He truly lived 
what he preached." 

As may be gathered from the foregoing, Satterlee 
found Trinity Church well organized. He had not, 
therefore, to create his parish machinery as in Mor- 
ganton, but simply to utilize what he found ready at 
hand and infuse the workers with a measure of his 
own spirit. It does not appear that he met with any 
open opposition to his plans from any quarter. 
Doubtless the greatest difficulty he had to contend 
with was simply the vis inertiae pertaining to a con- 
servative and highly respectable congregation. As 
one of its members said, ''Before Mr. Satterlee came, 
Trinity was anything but a working parish." The 
same person, in speaking of the obstacles which Sat- 
terlee found in his work, recalled a remark of his to 
the effect that the trouble with Trinity congregation 
was "its confounded respectability." Satterlee could 
bear nothing like a patronizing attitude on the part of 
one person towards another, and his contempt for 
what he termed "respectable aloofness" was supreme. 



COLUMBIA. 135 

While extremely sensitive to any evidence of indiffer- 
ence or dislike exhibited towards himself, he never 
permitted such a feeling to dominate him. Rather, 
he exerted himself doubly to win over his critics. An 
intimate friend recalls his saying in such a case, ''I 
think So-and-So is rather distant towards me and 
doesn't like me much; I must be careful to cultivate 
him." 

In regard to his work as an organizer and pastor, 
one of his vestrymen writes thus : 

"A feature in Mr. Satterlee's ministry was that 
disappointment in results never seemed to discourage 
him. If he thought a work was needed he tried to 
do it. If others failed to appreciate it, he neverthe- 
less went on, and in many things accomplished what 
he wanted, while others predicted failure, and only a 
few sustained him. As it grew upon our people that 
he was working wholly for the good of others, and 
that good was done, he found himself sustained and 
encouraged by large numbers. 

"His ministrations were not only to groups and 
organized bodies, — he was untiring in his devotion 
to individuals. He visited regularly all of his flock, 
and was especially attentive to the sick and sorrow^- 
ing. Once while at a florist's purchasing flowers for 
a poor woman (which he frequently did) some one 
present remarked that he had better buy food for her. 
The florist replied, ^I know that he has already done 
that.' 

"After Mr. Satterlee's death his best friends were 



136 A FISHER OF MEN. 

surprised to hear of how much he had done for those 
who suffered and were sorrowful, and they wondered 
how he had ever learned anything about some of 
these people. I have often told Mr. Satterlee of 
cases of sickness just reported to me. His reply 
almost always was, 'Oh, yes, I have been there.' 

"In all of the organizations of the parish he took a 
lively interest, attending meetings, encouraging and 
advising. He tried to be in closest touch with the 
boys and young men of the parish, and keep them 
even in their play mindful of their Christian obliga- 
tions. They were all warmly attached to him, and 
his influence was manifest in the better lives of many 
of them.'' 

As revealing the wideness of his personal minis- 
trations, the fact may be mentioned that he estab- 
lished relations with the colony of Greek Christians 
settled in Columbia, and that the children were 
brought to Trinity Church to receive baptism. 

One of the "Boys of Trinity" furnishes an account 
of the Club which the rector formed, with a descrip- 
tion of the annual outing : 

"Soon after Mr. Satterlee's arrival in Columbia he 
organized the boys of his parish into a club called the 
^Boys of Trinity.' In this society there were relig- 
ious as well as social features. 

"Meetings were held every Friday night. Mr. 
Satterlee, as chaplain, always opened the meeting 
with prayer, after which came the regular routine 
business of the society. We were always glad when 



COLUMBIA. 137 

our rector was able to give us little talks. He spoke 
to us not as a preacher but as our friend and comrade. 

'Through the rector's help and assistance the 
*Boys of Trinity' were able to have an annual outing. 
While in camp we dressed in our old clothes. It was 
a pleasing sight indeed to see the rector dressed in a 
brown shirt and overalls, joking and laughing with 
the boys. He took part in all our sports and was lit- 
erally 'one of the boys.' 

''When the choir boys and 'Boys of Trinity' first 
went to 'Camp Satterlee' they wtvt asked by Mr. 
Satterlee to take their prayer books and hymnals 
w^th them. This they did because they wanted to 
please their rector, though they did not think they 
would have much use for them, — but it proved other- 
wise. The country people would come to camp at 
prayer time, which was also breakfast and supper 
time, and at first we thought they came for some- 
thing to eat, but they wanted to hear Mr. Satterlee 
pray and the boys sing familiar hymns. 

"Mr. Satterlee was always straightforward in his 
dealings with the boys. He was never partial. He 
was always kind and considerate and slow to lose his 
temper. He certainly was an ideal leader of boys. 
He always had the nicest way of getting one to obey 
him. He would never command, only talk kindly, 
and we all soon saw how just he really was. Mr. 
Satterlee was a good man, and they loved him for it." 

One who was intimately associated with Satterlee 
in the active work of the parish, whose position 



138 A FISHER OF MEN. 

afiforded opportunity for knowing much of the quiet 
work he did among young men, writes as follows : 

*'Since the news of Mr. Satterlee's death reached 
me I have recalled daily between smiles and tears, 
many incidents of my association with him, and it 
seemed it w^ould be an easy matter to give you such 
material as you desired. But when I came to analyze 
the incidents which had most impressed upon me Mr. 
Satterlee's unusual characteristics, I found they were 
so closely connected w4th the private affairs of other 
people still living, that they were not available for 
your purpose. 

"I saw his marvellous tact exercised so many times 
in solving diffxult choir problems and in bringing 
together warring factions, and yet the parties con- 
cerned never realized how dexterously they were 
handled, and to recall them now would be to frustrate 
Mr. Satterlee's intentions. I also know of his deal- 
ings with several young men in whom he was inter- 
ested, and my information came from the young men 
themselves, who, of course, told it to me in confi- 
dence. One case I remember especially well of a 
young man who had been very dissipated but was 
trying to reform. Mr. Satterlee got him into the 
choir, and took pains to make friends with him. 
Christmas eve I heard that this young man was 
preparing to ^celebrate' with his friends and I 
went to the rectory to impart the news to Mr. 
Satterlee, who, of course, went at once in search 
of his protege. A few days after the young 



COLUMBIA. 139 

man remarked to me, 'I tell you Mr. Satterlee 
is an awful good fellow.' I agreed with him, 
and he went on to say, 'You know he came to 
see me Christmas eve. I was going down the street 
when I met him and he said he was just going to my 
rooms to wish me a *Merry Christmas,' so I went back 
with him, and we sat and talked about books and 
dogs and hunting until eleven o'clock. Then he pre- 
scribed for my cold, and advised me to go to bed.' I 
inquired if he took Mr. Satterlee's advice. 'Yes, I 
did,' he replied. T knew he hunted me up because he 
thought I needed a guardian, though he never 
preached a bit to me, — and I thought, by Jove, if he 
could give up Chrismas eve at home to keep me 
straight, the best I could do was to keep straight.' 

"If those of us w^ho were so fortunate as to come 
within range of his influence could but tell what he 
had done for each of us personally, what a great 
memorial his would be. God was so good as to give 
me the benefit of Mr. vSatterlee's comfort and counsel 
at a time of great trouble and sorrow, and the help he 
gave me then has made life a different thing for me." 

During Satterlee's rectorship he started a fund for 
the erection of a parish house adjoining the church. 
It was his idea that this building should constitute a 
memorial to departed communicants of Trinity 
Church. One member of the parish made an offering 
of $1,000, and others gave liberally. At the time of 
his death several thousand dollars had been collected 
through his exertions, and it is now proposed to push 



I40 A FISHER OF MEN. 

the work vigorously and make the house in a special: 
sense a memorial to the late rector. 

One who, perhaps, was closer to Satterlee than any 
layman, having been intimately associated with him 
for eight years, both in Morganton and also after- 
wards in Columbia, gives some interesting personal 
reminiscences : 

"We used in summer to spend evenings together 
smoking on the veranda, and I remember upon one 
occasion his bringing out a box of 'plantations' sent 
him by his father, remarking that they were such as. 
his father kept for his own use, though he always had 
'Henry Clays' for special occasions when he enter- 
tained men of distinction. I remarked that I was 
somewhat surprised that Bishop Satterlee smoked at 
all, to which he replied, 'Certainly he does; all the 
good fellows smoke.' 

"It was a favorite tenet of his that sermons should 
always be prepared by Thursday night, so that any- 
thing that might happen later in the week would not 
cause a preacher to go before his congregation unpre- 
pared. I think he followed this rule almost invaria- 
bly, doing most of his work between Tuesday and 
Thursday night. On Mondays, he did the lighter 
part of his parochial work and called it resting. This 
was the day when you could see him on the street and 
stepping into places of business for the smile and 
handshake that were always welcomed even by the 
busiest ; and often with an invitation to 'Come around 
for tea and a smoke this evening.' 



COLUMBIA. 141 

''He was, as you know, a great lover of good 
church music, and a very good choir-master. In 
Morganton he conducted all rehearsals, with the 
exception of one period of six months during which 
he had a trained musician employed ; and his was the 
only bass voice we had at any time. 

''When he had worked very hard, and we had a 
fine service, as we usually had on all feast days and 
special occasions, he would have what he called a 
'blue Monday' following, which I can see now was 
simply the result of nature's protest against over- 
work, though he never complained of physical dis- 
comfort, and would rarely acknowledge that he was 
at all out of condition. 

"If he was not what is popularly called an orator, it 
is because he didn't consider it worth while to be. 
His sermons were strong, scholarly and effective, and 
his growth as a preacher during the eight years that 
I knew him was remarkable. He didn't aspire to a 
reputation as an orator, and didn't want to be known 
as a 'walking encyclopedia.' 

"He remarked to me once, that his father had told 
him that there were certain points in which other 
young men of his Class surpassed him, but that his 
theological perspective was good; and this seemed to 
please him very much. 

"All through life it was with him a question of 
true perspective, and this is what saved him from the 
partisanship and susceptibility ^to adulation that have 
often impaired the usefulness of many able men. 



142 A FISHER OF MEN. 

That remark of his about true perspective, though 
not intended as such, was a much needed sermon 
to me. 

"When he began services in the mill district in 
Columbia it was under a simple shed near the site of 
the present chapel, and there is one incident that 
shows strongly his talent for turning opposition to 
help. Bishop Capers was to hold the service, one 
Sunday afternoon, Trinity choir furnishing the 
music; and Mr. Satterlee was out 'drumming' for a 
congregation. He found some men seated at the end 
of a railway bridge near by, and, to strengthen his 
invitation to them, added 'The Bishop of South Caro- 
lina, a great man, is going to preach.' One of the 
men said rather sullenly, 'What I want to hear is a 
good man, it don't make any difference to me about 
Bishops — one good man is as good as another.' 
Seizing the opportunity, Mr. Satterlee won them all 
by saying, 'That's the right spirit, and the man we 
are going to hear is a good man, just the kind of man 
you want. Everyone who knows the Bishop knows 
that he is first of all and above all a good man.' 

"He would join in a very hearty laugh at his own 
expense, and when, through haste or nervousness, he 
would announce at choir meeting that we would sing 
'eighty-five verses of the fifth hymn,' the mirth that 
followed was sufficient stimulus to an extra hour of 
hard work if lie wanted it from us. 

"At one Easter celebration at the Church of the 
Good Shepherd in Columbia, he undertook to cite the 



COLUMBIA. 143 

story of Jonah to the children, with the intention of 
bringing in Christ's three days in the tomb as the 
antitype of Jonah's three days in the belly of the 
whale. His tongue became tangled, and he used 
every possible transposition of the syllables in the 
words 'belly of the whale.' Finally he stopped, 
laughed in spite of himself, and said with comic seri- 
ousness, *Well, children, you know what I mean; 
now don't go home and tell this.' 

"Once, in Morganton, I heard a gentleman, not of 
Mr. Satterlee's congregation, say: 'I just left the 
happiest man I've seen in a long time ; old man H — , 
the blacksmith, got a letter to-day from Mr. Satterlee 
who is in Switzerland, and he's the proudest man 
you ever saw.' (By some people in this section, the 
word 'proud' is used as synonymous with either 
'happy' or 'grateful.' I don't know if this is true in 
the North.) 

"You can see from the incident just given how he 
remembered each individual in his congregation, no 
matter what his position in life, and always took the 
trouble to show that he remembered. 

"When there was quite an epidemic of smallpox 
near Morganton, he came to my father's office in 
compliance with the compulsory vaccination ordi- 
nance, and while he was being vaccinated, my father, 
who was Superintendent of the Board of Health, said 
jokingly, 'I must do this well, for if things get bad at 
the smallpox camp I may want to take you there 

with me.' Without hesitation Mr. Satterlee spoke 

10 



144 A FISHER OF MEN. 

up very earnestly and said, 'Do you really mean it, 
Doctor? ril go if you want me.' 

**I know of one case where he traveled over a thou- 
sand miles and spent about three hundred dollars 
from his own pocket, in order to help a young man 
do what he considered the honorable thing, and save 
the name of a young girl who could be saved only in 
one way. This was done against violent opposition 
on the part of the young man's family, but the man 
himself was anxious to make amends, and the wis- 
dom of Mr. Satterlee's course is evident from the 
subsequent life of the couple, despite the adverse 
criticism at the time. 

''I remember that Spencer's 'Synthetic Philosophy' 
occupied a prominent place in his library, and that he 
w^as very fond of biographies, taking special interest 
in J. Wing s 'Life of Washington.' While in Europe 
during the summer of '96, he and his sister made a 
study of Bryce's 'American Commonwealth,' a book 
Avhich most people would hardly consider best 
adapted to vacations. 

"At one time he entertained the idea of writing a 
history of the origin, or rather descent, of the class of 
North Carolinians known as the South Mountaineers, 
but I do not think he ever found time to undertake 
the work. 

"One of his methods of deciding between two 
courses of action was to take the pros and cons of 
each in parallel columns and strike a balance ; but I'm 



COLUMBIA. 145 

not sure that he adopted Spencer's method of giving 
numerical vahies to the items. 

''He and I used often to refer to the existence of 
some point of contact, some ground in common, be- 
tween the best man and the worst ; and sometimes in 
a half-cynical humor I would sum it up in a detached 
quotation from Kipling, 'The best is like the worst.' 
Cynicism formed no part of his constitution, so he 
would get back at me by bringing up the subject in 
company with a lot of dignified people, and pointing 
to me and saying jokingly, 'This fellow believes the 
best are just like the worst, anyway.' " 



CHAPTER VI. 

AMONG THE MILL HANDS. 

It was stated in the preceding chapter that one of 
the main reasons leading Satterlee to accept the call 
to Columbia was his appreciation of the fact that a 
great missionary work awaited him among the mill 
workers living on the outskirts of the city. During 
the past twenty years there had been growing up in 
Columbia important cotton manufacturing interests, 
which had brought to the city from the surrounding 
country districts a large and increasing population. 
When Satterlee went to Columbia, it is estimated 
that over ten thousand persons were employed in the 
various mills established there. These workers were 
mainly recruited from the "sand hill" districts of 
South Carolina, and comprised people who had here- 
tofore made a precarious living as small farmers. 
Dwelling for the most part in isolated communities, 
possessing little or none of the advantages of educa- 
tion, and sunk in the lowest depths of poverty, these 
"poor whites'' or "crackers" eagerly embraced the 
opportunity offered them of bettering their condition 
which the establishment of the cotton mill industry 
presented. Whole families, including children, came 

146 



THE MILL HANDS. i47 

to Columbia and found employment in the mills. 
Unaccustomed heretofore to having any money, the 
united wages which the family as a whole was able to 
earn represented in their eyes a sum almost fabulous. 
As much of the work was of such a character that it 
could easily be performed by children of tender years, 
such constituted a percentage of the workers. Prior 
to 1903, children under ten years of age were freely 
permitted to enter the mills; since that time the law 
has prohibited the employment of those under twelve. 
In a pamphlet which Satterlee published soliciting 
aid for his work among the mill people, he strongly 
condemns this evil, and gives the facts as to the con- 
ditions under which the work is done : 

"The blame for this sacrifice of children's health 
and schooling should be placed where it belongs. 
Many of the mill owners would co-operate willingly 
to compel children of tender years to go to school. A 
large number of the mill owners and managers were 
in favor of the Child Labor bill, which was recently 
passed by the General Assembly in this State, for- 
bidding children under ten years of age to work in 
the mills this year, next year prohibiting those under 
eleven to work, and the year following those under 
twelve, unless there is a widowed mother to be sup- 
ported, or some other equally urgent cause. The 
working hours are long. The State allows sixty-six 
hours a week, and the majority of employees prefer 
to work twelve hours a day for five days in the week, 
with a half holiday on Saturday. Work commences 



148 A FISHER OF MEN. 

at 6 A. M. and ends at 6.45 p. m., with three-quarters 
of an hour intermission at noon. But almost ninety 
per cent, of the entire pay roll of any of the factories 
in this State is figured upon a piece basis, and the 
other ten per cent, is paid by the day. So far as the 
work and the pay are concerned, it matters little to 
the employer whether the work is done by a man or 
by a child, so long as it is well done. The expense is 
the same. Children are desired for other reasons, not 
primarily for the reason of economy. 

"It is by no means rare for a family to make $800 
or $1,000 a year. That is one reason why the mill 
owner has been inclined to employ the children, as 
the father and mother prefer to go where the family 
can make the largest wages, using the whole family ; 
the older children often make more money than the 
parents. Sometimes the father does not work at all. 
But such a condition of affairs is the exception rather 
than the rule.'' 

The influx of this large population within a few 
years rendered the task of adequately ministering to 
their spiritual needs a tremendous one, and quite 
beyond the powers of the Christian people of Colum- 
bia. The mill workers themselves, if not unmindful 
of their religious interests, were yet wholly lacking in 
the power of initiative and capacity for caring for 
themselves in this regard. For a long time little was 
accomplished in the way of providing regular relig- 
ious services. Vagrant preachers, it is true, occa- 
sionally made their way into the mill districts, fol- 



THE MILL HANDS. 149 

lowing the people from their former homes, but their 
crass ignorance and crude conceptions of Christianity- 
made their ministrations of small avail in awakening 
the dormant religious life and raising the moral tone 
of th^ community. The mill owners themselves ulti- 
mately saw the necessity of doing something for the 
moral uplifting of their employees, and in the spring 
of 1 90 1 three of the largest companies offered to 
give a plot of ground and $2,500 towards the erection 
of a church building to cost not less than $5,000, to 
any Christian body in Columbia which would build 
a church and supply regular Sunday services. Here 
was Satterlee's opportunity. Though he had just 
come to Columbia and had barely established himself 
in the rectorship, he brought the matter before his 
congregation and begged them to accept the offer of 
the mill ow^ners. Although the parish heretofore had 
been content to consider only its own needs, spend- 
ing, as the wife of one of the vestrymen said, "most 
of its thought, most of its efforts, and most of its 
money upon itself," such was the contagion of Sat- 
terlee's enthusiasm that the vestry readily agreed to 
raise $2,000 for the purpose, Satterlee himself prom- 
ising to provide the balance. As soon as the matter 
had been settled, Satterlee took possession of the 
field, and, pending the erection of the church, had a 
wooden shed put up where open air services were 
conducted by him during the summer and autumn of 
1 90 1. In speaking of this early phase of the work 
Satterlee says in his pamphlet : 



ISO A FISHER OF MEN. 

"By beginning the services in this simple way, 
something was also done, I believe, to impress upon 
the people for whom they were intended the fact that, 
in spite of erroneous but frequently widespread im- 
pressions, the Episcopal Church does not stand for 
exclusiveness, or for modes of worship unsuited to 
the simplest people." 

The people at first were highly suspicious of the 
new enterprise. Few or none of them knew anything 
of the Episcopal Church, the ideas they had concern- 
ing it bordering upon the ludicrous. Still, they 
flocked to the services attracted by their curiosity and 
the novelty of the vestments worn by the clergyman 
and choristers. The same methods which had won 
success for Satterlee's work among the mountaineers 
of North Carolina proved, however, equally effectual 
in winning the good will of the mill operatives, and 
it was not long before suspicion was completely dis- 
armed and a permanent and loyal congregation estab- 
lished. As in the case of his mission work at Mor- 
ganton, Satterlee felt that little lasting good could be 
effected without having workers on the spot who 
could enter into the daily life of the people and min- 
ister as well to their material as to their spiritual 
welfare. Accordingly, with his usual resourceful- 
ness, he managed to raise the money among his 
friends in the North to pay the salary of a deacon- 
ness, who arrived in October of that year. A house 
was set apart by the mill owners for her occupancy, 



THE MILL HANDS. 151 

which was used also for the meetings of the societies 
and guilds which Satterlee organized. 

The chapel, a commodious brick building holding 
400 people, was completed in November, 1901, at a 
cost of $5,700, the title being vested in Trinity- 
Church, and it was called Trinity Chapel. Mean- 
while a curate ministering exclusively to the wants of 
the mill congregation was secured and active mis- 
sionary work begun. 

The problem of how best to meet the peculiar 
needs of the mill congregation occupied much of 
Satterlee's thoughts. In the pamphlet previously 
referred to, he tells how the work was conducted and 
the results which followed : 

"The question of the most suitable form of service 
to introduce now came up for decision. It is my 
experience that in all mission work of this kind, the 
hope of the future centres largely in the children. 
The older people have already formed their opinions, 
and are established in their views. In order to be 
reached at all, the adults must be reached through 
the children. So it was deemed best to have two ses- 
sions of the Sunday-school, morning and afternoon; 
to have an educational and devotional service in the 
morning, with Morning Prayer, churchly hymns, and 
a talk on some simple phase of Church doctrine or 
worship. For use, at night, we arranged a leaflet 
which had the elements of our Church service, but 
simplified; old familiar hymns were sung, and a 
'gospel sermon' was preached. 



152 A FISHER OF MEN. 

"The efifect of these services has been marked. 
True, there is seldom a crowd in the chapel, but we 
have a very fair proportion of the Sunday scholars in 
the community, as also a gratifying number of the 
adult worshippers. The Methodists and the Baptists 
have larger congregations, but it must be remembered 
that many of those who attend the services and par- 
take of the Holy Communion in Trinity Chapel had 
never even heard of the Episcopal Church two years 
ago. Our numbers are on the increase year by year, 
although we endeavor to be very careful in the prep- 
aration of our catechumens. There are hundreds and 
we fear thousands who never attend a church of any 
name, so there is a great work ahead. 

"In this way the mission was continued through 
the winter and spring of 1902. The minister in 
charge, and the deaconess, regularly visited the fami- 
lies in the mill homes. When any sickness or death 
occurred, the services of our workers were in constant 
demand, as the people realized that the rector, the 
vicar and the deaconess were at their service when- 
ever help of any kind could be rendered. Direct and 
indirect good has resulted from these visits. There 
are several persons alive and in good health to-day, 
who, ignorant of the ways and means of nursing, 
would probably have succumbed to premature death 
had it not been for certain simple precautions shown 
them in their sick rooms." 

In no respect were the results of this line of work 



THE MILL HANDS. i53 

more productive of good than in the case of the 
babies. By the estabhshment of a Day Nursery, 
where mothers were encouraged to place their infants 
during the time they themselves were employed in the 
mills, the sickness and mortality among this class 
were greatly reduced. It had been the custom in 
many instances for the mothers to take their babies 
with them to the mills, where they were deposited in 
a convenient place and then left to their own devices. 
In order to keep them quiet, it was not unusual to 
dose them with paregoric. Even w^here this was not 
the case, the lack of proper food and attention, the 
foul air, and loud whir of the machinery, were 
causes distinctly affecting the babies' health. 

The institutional work which Satterlee inaugurated 
soon outgrew the cramped quarters of the little home 
provided for the deaconess, and the conviction forced 
itself upon his mind that a building especially adapted 
to the growing needs of the work was an urgent 
necessity. At least $5,000 was required to erect and 
equip a proper building. During his vacation in the 
summer of 1902, he devoted his time and energy to 
w^hat he termed "the irksome task" of raising this 
money. He succeeded in getting this large sum, 
how or from whom no one but himself knew. All 
that. his parishioners in Columbia could say about it 
was, that "he got it from friends at the North." The 
house, a pleasant commodious building having a 
large assembly room and a number of small rooms 



154 A FISHER OF MEN. 

suitable for class work and the meeting of societies, 
together with apartments for the working staff, was 
completed only a few months before his death, and 
stands as a memorial to his labors. 

Of the practical advantages which accrued to the 
work from the possession of such a centre of institu- 
tional life, Satterlee gives his ow^n estimate: 

"The mission house provides excellent quarters for 
our organizations. The fifty G. F. S. members are 
schooled into the duties of 'friendliness' in all its 
varied aspects, and are unconsciously learning to be 
good daughters, wives and mothers, and, by a little 
care and thoughtfulness, to make homes comfortable 
and happy. 

"At the Boys' Club there is a short service, a prac- 
tical talk to the boys, and afterwards games and 
other amusements. The boys flock to us in great 
numbers. 

"The mothers have a weekly meeting, and enjoy 
the talks and suggestions of our women workers. 
These gatherings create a bond of union between 
them all, meeting as they do almost under the shelter 
of the church, and so, in a measure, a friendly feeling 
is aroused, and of course this friendliness helps the 
Church, showing men, women and children that the 
Church stands for real religion, and that pleasure, 
happiness and amusement have a rightful place in 
life. 

"In the rear of the building there is a dispensary, 



THE MILL HANDS. i55 

where six of the best physicians in Cohimbia offer 
their services twice a week each to those who come 
with proper endorsements. The dispensary is well 
patronized. At the very end of the building (but 
this is to be a venture of the future, when we have 
more money) there are two rooms which we hope to 
see furnished with bath tubs for the use of those 
whose cramped and crowded homes make habits of 
personal cleanliness difficult. The night school, 
w^hich during the past winter was conducted three 
nights each week, was very popular with the young 
people. It required the constant attention of three 
teachers to keep the thirty boys and girls well occu- 
pied and interested in their work. 

"This is our simple and unadorned story in a nut- 
shell, but there is a great deal more to be accom- 
plished, and we have only commenced. There are 
opportunities for work among these 10,000 mill peo- 
ple in the suburbs of Columbia which are appalling 
in their magnitude. Sometimes we shudder to think 
what we might be doing to help these people but have 
not the means to do. And what is true of Columbia 
is coming to be true of numerous other Southern 
cities and towns.'' 

That Satterlee's work for the social and spiritual 
betterment of their mill operatives was fully appreci- 
ated by the proprietors is evident from the following 
communication sent to him by one of the officers of 
the company: 



156 A FISHER OF MEN. 

'Columbia, S. C, July 8th, 1903. 
"Rev. Churchill Satterlee. 
"My Dear Sir :— 

"In respect to the matters which we had under 
discussion when we last met, it affords me pleasure 
to say that T, together with others who are interested 
in the management of the mills, feel ourselves under 
great obligations to those denominations who have 
built churches and placed pastors among our people. 
We appreciate none more highly than the work which 
has been done by Trinity Church, of which you are 
the rector. We feel that the work which has been 
done by you, both through the medium of your 
chapel and also your Mission Home, is one of great 
service to our people, not only from the spiritual 
aspect, but from the social and intellectual. The 
presence among these people of the vicar of your 
chapel, and also of the worthy ladies who are in 
charge of the Mission Home as deaconesses, has- 
already been felt, and we are satisfied that this good 
work will continue to grow. The chapel service, I 
can say from my own personal experience as a visitor 
there, is highly appreciated by the people, and tends 
to lead them forward to a higher and more useful life. 
The work of the deaconesses who are in charge of the 
Mission Home, while largely of the same order, as it 
deals with the spiritual life of the people, is more 
largely felt in their every-day and social life. The 
tendency there is to give this people a new idea of 
life and of living, and lead them up to a much higher 



THE MILL HANDS. i57 

plane of social relation. The benefactions also which 
have been dispensed from this Home are of great 
value to this people, and the charity v^ork v^hich is 
there being done by many of our most prominent 
ladies we regard as a great blessing to them. 

"In speaking on behalf of the management of these 
mills, I feel that we cannot express the gratitude that 
we owe to you and those associated with you because 
of this work which you render our people through 
the instrumentalities above referred to, and we desire 
to assure you that we shall at all times hold ourselves 
in readiness to co-operate with you in this noble work. 

"With much esteem, I remain, 

"Yours very sincerely, 

"W. A. Clark." 

Satterlee's work among the mill operatives, while, 
perhaps, it bulks bigger in the material results 
achieved than his missionary labors among the 
mountaineers of North Carolina, lacks of necessity 
the charm and picturesqueness which belonged to the 
latter. For one thing, his duties as the rector of a 
large city parish, precluded the possibility of that 
close personal intercourse with individuals which 
characterized his Morganton career. He seemed 
wSometimes to fear that his parishioners in the parish 
church of Columbia would feel that he was neglect- 
ing them if he gave too much time to the mill work. 
That there was no such feeling is certain, for the 
sympathy and support accorded him by the leading 



158 A FISHER OF MEN. 

people of Trinity Church were amply manifest. They 
indeed had no ground for any complaint that he neg- 
lected his duties toward themselves, though it may 
fairly be inferred that the extra burden entailed by 
the charge of the mill work made undue demands 
upon his strength, and was one of the causes that laid 
him open to the attack of grippe which ultimately 
cost him his life. For long intervals the chapel was 
without a curate, and as he was unwilling to see the 
services suspended he took them himself in addition 
to those at the parish church. Often on Sundays 
after celebrating an early Communion at the church, 
he went to the chapel, a distance of about two miles, 
and held another celebration there at 9.30, returning 
for the main service at the church at 1 1 o'clock. Then 
after evensong at 5 o'clock at the parish church, he 
would hold another service at the chapel at 7.30 
o'clock, all entailing the preaching of three sermons, 
besides attendance at the Sunday-school and catechis- 
ing the children. 

One of his wardens, in a communication to the 
writer, tells how he spent his last Easter Day : 

"On Easter Day of 1903, he had early Communion 
at St. Luke's Church (a congregation of colored 
people) at 5.30 a. m., at Trinity Church at 7.30, and 
at Trinity Chapel at 9. He then had full morning 
service in Trinity Church at 1 1 a. m., Sunday-school 
celebration at 4 p. m., and preached at Trinity Chapel 
at night, and after the service had a wedding. We 
all considered him a very strong man physically." 



THE MILL HANDS. i59 

In Columbia, Satterlee continued the custom which 
he had started in Morganton, of bringing to the par- 
ish church on all festival occasions the children 
belonging to the Mission. By this arrangement he 
fostered the sentiment of an identity of organic life 
between the two and promoted a feeling of mutual 
good will. In all his work, what he especially aimed 
at was to break down the barrier of social prejudice 
and to inculcate a spirit of mutual sympathy and 
helpfulness. While he recognized the fact of class 
distinction, he was intolerant of any exhibition of it 
where religion was concerned. He felt strongly that 
the Episcopal Church was popularly misunderstood, 
that among many of those often designated as the 
"plain people" there was a vast misconception of the 
Church's attitude. As much as in him lay he strove 
to combat this prejudice and to make the poorest feel 
that the Church was for him and needed him. He 
had a large faith that the Church's system was capa- 
ble of meeting the religious wants of all classes. On 
this point, taught by his own experience, he writes : 

"The Church which can reach the mountaineers of 
North Carolina, and the humble people in our large 
cities in England and America will, in extending to 
the mill population of the South a helping hand in 
the name of our common Master, be deceived joy- 
fully,' as the Church of the Living God, and, in fact, 
has been so received." 

But, while clinging firmly to this belief, he was 

actuated by an intense desire for Christian unity. He 
II 



i6o A FISHER OF MEN. 

longed to see all those who acknowledged a common 
Lord and Master united in one visible Brotherhood 
of faith and worship. A staunch Churchman, a firm 
believer in the Catholic and Apostolic character of 
the Church whose ministry he exercised, he had yet 
that largeness of sympathy, that true wideness of 
vision, which, while it does not ignore theological 
and ecclesiastical differences, yet seeks to include all 
men and all systems in the circle of its helpfulness 
and love. 

A clergyman who had unique opportunities for 
observing Satterlee's work and methods, and who 
was admitted to his closest confidence, writes thus 
concerning his attitude towards Christian unity : 

"It seems to me that there was a central aspiration 
in Satterlee's life, and that his ministry shaped itself 
out of this thought, as the oak from the acorn grows. 

"That ruling idea was Christian unity. There are 
many Low Churchmen, who have no consciousness of 
historic corporate or organic Christianity, and it is an 
easy task for these to sympathize with the sects. 

"On the other hand there are High Churchmen, 
who have the strongest kind of convictions regarding 
Catholic and Apostolic Christianity, who have no 
sympathy at all with denominational religious life. 

"There is a third class, who hold from deep con- 
viction to the Catholicity and Apostolicity of the 
Church, and who, yet, on the other hand, have a deep 
conviction that they should recognize all that is best, 



THE MILL HANDS. i6i 

most scriptural and most spiritual in the life of the 
sects. 

'This is the hardest stand to take, and yet, with 
Satterlee, it was not hard at all. While he was, from 
conviction, a consistent High Churchman, neverthe- 
less his whole heart went out to those in other Chris- 
tian bodies, in the most natural way. He drew them 
to him by his deep fount of sympathy. 

"Beneath all his sympathy he had singular shrewd- 
ness, and common sense enough not to put himself 
into positions where he w^ould compromise his stand 
as a minister of Apostolic Succession, and yet, some- 
how he never made ministers of other Christian 
bodies feel antagonized. They saw that he was try- 
ing to emphasize points of contact more than points 
of difference. They felt that he recognized their 
Christian character as those who were living in union 
Vv^th Christ. 

**This same deep aspiration for unity took many 
phases and characterized his work. In the parish his 
one idea was to fill the parish church with the atmos- 
phere of a warm Christian home, and he accom- 
plished this result by ignoring parish parties, class 
distinctions and personal differences. Because he 
ignored them the parishioners felt ashamed of em- 
phasizing such distinctions. 

*Tn his mission w^ork the same idea took shape in 
the great yearning to make the mountaineers of 
North Carolina and the mill operatives of Columbia, 
feel that the chapel to which he drew them was a real 



i62 A FISHER OF MEN. 

spiritual home, in which they would all find rest and 
comfort. 

''In intermingling with denominational life he 
would at times attend the services held by ministers 
of other Christian bodies, in a modest, unobtrusive 
way, and in return they came frequently to the church 
of which he was the rector, feeling that there was a 
warm welcome there for them in the rector's heart." 

Another, who had watched Satterlee's career 
closely, and was particularly impressed with the 
reality of his personal influence over those outside the 
Communion to which he belonged, writes as follows : 

''No one who knew what his work was, both at 
Morganton and Columbia, can fail to be struck by 
the wonderful results of his short ministry in creating 
a spirit of fellow^ship and Christian unity, not only in 
his own parish, but throughout the whole community. 

"He seems to have had a singular, a most unique 
power of attracting to himself, and, so bringing 
together, men of all kinds of religious opinion and 
belief, and in this way he became himself, through 
the uncpnscious influence of his personality a centre 
of unity among Christians of all denominations. This 
was the more remarkable because he was so entirely 
free from any spirit of compromise or laxity in his 
own Church principles, which rested on the strong- 
est, most unwavering convictions, — but the power of 
his whole-hearted loyal devotion to the service of 
Christ and His Church; the pure unselfishness of his 
life were so plainly manifest to all who came in con- 



THE MILL HANDS. 163 

tact with him, that they felt themselves lifted up to a 
higher plane, where the overmastering consciousness 
of the real spiritual unity of all Christians in Christ 
cast their lesser differences into the shade. 

"Might not this one aspect of Churchill Satterlee's 
life and work be taken as an illustration and a 
prophecy of the way in which Church Unity will at 
last be brought about, — through the indirect, uncon- 
scious influence of such personalities, — themselves 
living centres of spiritual power, and bringing home 
so irresistibly to the hearts of men the truth of their 
inward fellow^ship and oneness in Christ that outward 
unity will become a necessary expression of Christian 
life?" 



CHAPTER VIL 

FINISHING HIS COURSE. 

Satterlee's health since his entrance upon the 
work of the ministry had upon the whole been excel- 
lent. He seemed to have entirely outgrown the heart 
affection which had been a serious matter during his 
college days. Doubtless the good health he subse- 
quently enjoyed was due largely to his residence in 
the stimulating climate of the North Carolina moun- 
tains and to the vigorous outdoor life which he led 
there. It is possible that his removal to the low-lying 
country of western South Carolina may have resulted 
in lowering his vitality, thus laying his system open 
to an attack of grippe which he had in November, 
1903. Upon the subject of Satterlee's health, his 
father sends the following communication : 

*'While he was in college Churchill had a rheu- 
matic heart. Our physician said, however, that if 
nothing tmforeseen happened, and he took reasonable 
care of himself, that nature would accommodate her- 
self, as she always does, to his physical condition, and 
that he would outgrow this physical disadvantage, 
and that there was no reason why he should not live 
until he was eighty years of age. 

164 




THREE GEXERATIOXS. 
Bishop Satterlee, Rev. Churchill Satterlee and Harry Yates Satterlee 2nd, 



FINISHING HIS COURSE. 165 

'The physician's words were exactly fulfilled. 
Churchill became so robust and strong physically, 
that last summer he went into the ocean, swam in the 
surf, rode twenty miles on a bicycle, and took other 
vigorous exercise. 

"He w^as so strong, that in thinking of the future, 
while I have contemplated my own death, or Mrs. 
Satterlee's death, I never dreamed that he would be 
taken away. If it had not been for the grippe, which 
weakened his heart, in an entirely different manner 
from rheumatism, I believe he would have been alive 
to-day." 

It is not unlikely also, as suggested in the preced- 
ing chapter, that the extra work which Satterlee 
assumed in connection with his mission to the mill 
folk, made too great demands upon his strength. 
The deaconess in charge, in speaking of this matter 
afterwards said, that she had often noticed when he 
came to the chapel to hold a service on Sunday even- 
ing, that he exhibited signs of physical and nervous 
exhaustion. When she would remonstrate with him 
and beg him to allow^ one of his lay readers to con- 
duct the services, he would smilingly respond that he 
was all right, and counsel her to look after her own 
health and not bother about him. While never spar- 
ing himself, Satterlee was always most considerate of 
those who worked under him. On one occasion, when 
the deaconess was feeling worn out from her labors, 
he insisted that she should take three months' vaca- 
tion, continuing her salary the while and providing 



i66 A FISHER OF MEN. 

a substitute out of his own pocket. When she 
demurred to leaving her post for so long a time, he 
wrote her a letter, saying, 'This is not to suggest, 
nor to advise, but to direct you to go." His last 
official act was to endorse over to her order a check 
which he had received from personal friends for the 
purpose of providing a horse and wagon for her use 
in paying visits. 

As showing the general concern felt in the com- 
munity over Satterlee's illness, the fact may be men- 
tioned that a Roman Catholic Sister came to the rec- 
tory and offered her services as voluntary nurse. 

Satterlee partially recovered from the attack of 
grippe by which he was prostrated in November, and 
was able to resume his duties for a time, but it was 
soon apparent that his heart had become weakened. 
In response to the urgent wishes of the vestry that he 
should leave Columbia and go elsewhere for a com- 
plete rest, he went to Savannah for ten days, whence 
he returned little, if any, better. 

Subsequently, accompanied by his wife and chil- 
dren, he went on February 9 to Augusta, Georgia, 
taking rooms at the house of Dr. Michel in Summer- 
ville, a suburb of the city. While Satterlee and his 
wife both realized that his condition was serious, 
there was no idea apparently on the part of either 
that there was any immediate danger. It seemed to 
be believed, that with a complete rest he would be 
fully restored to health. Satterlee himself never gave 
any indication that he deemed his end near, but on 



FINISHING HIS COURSE. 167 

the contrary, was bright and cheerful to the last, 
spending the days playing with his children and chat- 
ting with his wife. The only indication which led 
Mrs. Satterlee subsequently to think that possibly 
her husband might have had some undefined idea that 
his death was imminent, was a remark he made to her 
the day before the end came, "I have never prayed 
before as I have prayed to-day." 

On the morning of February 16, at four o'clock, 
just before dawn, death came suddenly and 
painlessly. As one of his eulogists phrased it in the 
glowing periods of his Southern eloquence : 

"When morn was about to unbar her golden gates, 
he passed away. The sunset of his life was associ- 
ated with the brightness of the rising sun. Such an 
ending of a Christian career gives no cause for vain 
regrets. It is God's way. What is life but a great 
battlefield, whereupon men are falling every day? As 
a Christian soldier of the Cross, Churchill Satterlee 
went to a painless ending, crow^ned wnth the victor's 
wreath, fashioned by the angels of heaven." 

Satterlee died in the thirty-sixth year of his age, 
completing a ministry of a trifle over ten years. 

Passing away in the prime of his young manhood, 
having before him a career promising a large useful- 
ness, growing every day, as was apparent to all 
observers, in intellectual strength and spiritual grace, 
his death yet seemed to have about it an unwonted 
note of triumph. Those who were present at the 
funeral services were deeply impressed with this 



i68 A FISHER OF MEN. 

thought, and the many letters which were subse- 
quently received by the family breathe a similar 
sentiment. 

On the news of his death reaching Columbia, a 
hasty meeting of the vestry was held and a deputa- 
tion appointed to go to Augusta and accompany the 
body to that city. Meanwhile, Bishop Satterlee had 
been notified, and with his wife and daughter went at 
once to Augusta. 

The funeral services were held in Trinity Church, 
Columbia, on Thursday afternoon, February i8. The 
interior of the church building was elaborately dec- 
orated with white cloth and flowers. There were no 
outward signs of mourning save the grief evident on 
the faces and in the bearing of the great congrega- 
tion. The church looked, so it was remarked, as 
though it had been prepared for the celebration of an 
Easter festival. 

The clergy of the city and vicinity were present in 
a body, as was also a full representation of the minis- 
ters of the various denominations, who occupied by 
invitation seats in the choir. In the body of the 
church was the priest of the Roman Catholic church. 
The funeral services were conducted by the Bishop of 
the diocese, the Rt. Rev. Ellison Capers, a former 
rector of Trinity Church, assisted by the Archdeacon 
of Columbia and others. The hymns sung were 
special favorites of Satterlee, "J^sus lives," and "O 
Zion haste thy mission high fulfilling," the latter by 
appointment of his family as an expression of his 



FINISHING HIS COURSE. 169 

earnest missionary feeling and work. The reces- 
sional was "When morning gilds the skies." As the 
choir sang, the bells at the Olympia Mills, where the 
rector had done so much loving and effective mission- 
ary w^ork, were solemnly tolled as a token of the 
grief of the operatives. 

A short address was made by Bishop Capers, in 
which he paid a high tribute to Satterlee's character 
and his work in Columbia. In conclusion, addressing 
himself to Bishop Satterlee, who sat immediately in 
front of him, the speaker said : 

"It is an inexpressible honor to have reared such a 
son and given him to God in His holy ministry, and 
now that you are called upon, my dear brother, to 
give him back to God, it is strength and peace to 
know that his bishop and these brethren, the vestry, 
and the congregation of Trinity assure you that his 
ministry was an honor to him and to you, and a 
blessing to the people." 

Bishop Satterlee, leaving his pew and standing in 
the aisle beside the casket, closed the service by pro- 
nouncing the benediction. 

The progress of the funeral party resembled a 
devotional pilgrimage. All the way from Augusta 
to New Hamburgh, wherever a change was made, 
the body w^as met by former friends and associates, 
clergymen and laymen. At Columbia, at Washing- 
ton, at New York, special delegations were present, 
the members of which bore the casket with their own 
hands from point to point. A special service for the 



I70 A FISHER OF MEN. 

benefit of relatives and friends was held in Calvary 
Church, New York, the following Saturday morning, 
the attendance being surprisingly large. 

Later in the day the body was conveyed to New 
Hamburgh in a special car, accompanied by the 
family, relatives and friends. Classmates at the 
Seminary and College friends bore the body to its 
last resting place. Bishop Satterlee himself read the 
Committal Service, and short prayers were offered 
by tw^o of Satterlee's classmates. Here in the family 
plot in the cemetery of the little village on the banks 
of the Hudson where he was born thirty-six years 
before, all that is mortal of Churchill Satterlee now 
reposes. 

Three children were born of Satterlee's marriage 
to his wife Helen Stuyvesant Folsom; Henry Yates 
named after his grandfather, the Bishop of Washing- 
ton, born April 8, 1900; Etheldred Frances, born 
May 20, 1902, and Churchill, his father's namesake, 
born May 25, 1904. 



CHAPTER VIII 

AFTERMATH. 

If the preceding chapters have not sufificed to 
afford the reader some clear idea of the man of whom 
they treat, it is obvious that the mere printing of 
resolutions and of letters of appreciation will be of 
small avail to that end. But though this be true, it 
yet may be of interest to those who have followed the 
record thus far to read in a supplementary chapter 
extracts from some of the many resolutions and let- 
ters received by Satterlee's family after his death. 
The perusal of these documents cannot, it is believed, 
fail to deepen any impression made by reading the 
foregoing narrative, and may also serve to throw an 
additional side light upon Satterlee's personality and 
character. Indeed, it was due mainly to a study of 
these documents and to the strong impression made 
by their contents of the remarkable character of Sat- 
terlee's influence, that the idea of attempting to inter- 
pret his life assumed definite shape. 

One of those who knew him well, a woman of 
intellectual force and critical judgment, in giving her 
opinion as to the advisability of publishing an account 
of Satterlee's life, thus expresses herself : 

171 



172 A FISHER OF MEN. 

"These personal tributes and impressions from so 
many different sources have given me such a fresh 
and inspiring picture of Churchill's life and character, 
that I wish it were possible to cast them in some 
form which would convey the same vivid idea of his 
personality to others. The difficulty is, that a char- 
acter so marked by simplicity, purity and single- 
mindedness, could not be analyzed or described in 
detail (as a more complicated nature might be), 
without destroying the truth and unity of the im- 
pression instead of strengthening it. One great 
secret of his power certainly lay in the transparency 
of his life— the perfect harmony between aims and 
motives and outward acts and deeds, — and it would 
seem hardly possible to understand him (except for- 
those nearest to him), without knowing something of 
his active work, or, through illustrations, of the 
results of his personal influence on the lives of all 
kinds of people, — or by seeing, in the evidence of 
such love, gratitude and loyalty as is shown in these 
tributes, what the sympathy and self-sacrifice must 
have been which called them forth. I have not 
clearly expressed what I mean — it is only that it 
seems especially true in his case that he can be best 
known by the fruits of his life. 

"It does seem as if the remarkable, spontaneous: 
tribute paid to his memory ought to be interpreted, 
so that it may be seen to be a striking testimony to • 
the power of a really noble, Christlike character, and 
a proof of what such a man can achieve in a few 



AFTERMATH. i73 

years, beginning with a comparatively limited sphere 
of work and influence, which he extended and made 
great by the energy, faith and enthusiasm he carried 
into it, as well as by his practical judgment and 
executive ability. 

''If the results could be made to speak for them- 
selves, many might be helped and inspired by such a 
record of his life.'' 

To let the facts, so far as possible, speak for them- 
selves, to avoid making comments or passing enco- 
miums has been the constant endeavor of the writer. 
In so far as, and wherever, he has transgressed this 
canon, it has been due simply to the unconscious over- 
flowings of his own admiration for the personality he 
has endeavored to interpret for others. 

In the resolutions passed by the Vestry of Trinity 
Church, testimony is borne to the deep love and rever- 
ence felt for their late rector ''by all who knew him 
or had seen his good works." 

"Words cannot picture nor can tongue utter the 
thoughts of our hearts. As a friend, a counsellor, a 
preceptor and a priest, he was loved, trusted and 
revered." 

Adapting to his case the words of St. Paul, they 
declare : " 'In all things' he proved himself the min- 
ister of God — 'in much patience, in affliction, in 

necessities, in distress By pureness, by 

knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the 

Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned By the 

word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of 



174 A FISHER OF MEN. 

righteousness, on the right hand and on the left 
. ... as sorrowful yet alway rejoicing; as poor 
yet making rich ; as having nothing and yet possess- 
ing all things.' " 

The following account of a memorial service held 
in Grace Church, Morganton, to express the general 
sorrow of the community over Satterlee's death, is 
taken from the local newspaper : 

''Notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather, 
a large congregation was present, composed of every 
denomination. The services were conducted by Rt. 
Rev. Bishop Horner. A short form of evening ser- 
vice was used, after which short addresses on the life 
and services of Mr. Satterlee in this and the sur- 
rounding community were made. The tributes paid 
were beautiful and touching, and especially was this 
so when a member of one of the missions arose and 
spoke of the great work done and the influence for 
good which his presence had wrought. At the close 
of the services resolutions were offered by a commit- 
tee of representative citizens, which were adopted by 
the people en masse rising/' 

After the usual preamble, the document proceeds as 
follows : 

''His work here lives after him in more fruitful 
lives, in brighter homes, in light brought in dark 
places. 

"It matters little where such a man was born or 
how he died. The fragrancy of his life, like the 



AFTERMATH. 175 

breath of a spring morning, permeated a whole com- 
munity. In sorrowing for him it is rather ourselves 
that we sorrow for, that we shall see his face no 
more. Like the great Apostle, whose life was his 
model, he has gone up unbound to a greater Jerusa- 
lem and found fit association with the white-robed 
and palm-bearing multitude which are led by the 
Lamb. 

"In the six years of Mr. Satterlee's ministry here, 
it is a matter of common knowledge that his Chris- 
tian life w^as characterized by the broadest charity, 
the most unaffected sympathy with the troubles of all 
the people; while to those permitted the privilege of 
knowing his inner home life there was shown the 
quiet beauty of the cultured Christian fireside. 

"A mighty Cedar of Lebanon is laid low. 
A Prince in Israel has fallen! 

"This people, irrespective of creed, tender sympa- 
thy to the parents and young wife of the deceased 
rector, and claim to share with them some part of the 
melancholy pride with which his richly-led life is sur- 
veyed by all who knew him or were brought under 
his influence." 

The Women's Auxiliary of Trinity Church have 
this to say regarding his missionary zeal : 

"In his brief ministry of three years among us he 

impressed each one with his unusual and intense 
12 



176 A FISHER OF MEN. 

interest in missions. He was ever animated by the 
spirit of his favorite missionary hymn : 

" 'Beware kst, slothful to fulfil thy mission, 
Thou lose one jewel that should deck His crown/ 

"He longed to have the everlasting Gospel preached 
to all men, at home and abroad, and did all in his 
power not only to teach the flock committed to his 
care, but he went out into the highways and lanes and 
sought by gentle but most earnest efforts to bring all 
sorts and conditions of men into our Father's House. 
Nor did his missionary zeal stop there, but also in the 
foreign field in all parts of the world, wherever it was 
possible for us as members of the Auxiliary to extend 
our aid, he, as our President, did all he could to help 
us accomplish all we would for the glory of God and 
the benefit of our fellow men. We can hear his fine 
voice as he sang : 

" *My tongue shall never tire 
Of chanting with the choir, 

May Jesus Christ be praised/ 

"This was the inspiring motive of his life." 
In the State, the leading daily newspaper of Colum- 
bia, was printed this tribute : 

"Three years ago the Rev. Churchill Satterlee 
came to Columbia a stranger: to-day there is a 
shadow over many households and sorrow in many 
hearts in this city because of his death. To hundreds 



AFTERMATH. i77 

of friends the announcement came as a shock; they 
had sustained a great personal loss. 

''Some of the good works of this young and earn- 
est laborer in the Lord's vineyard will be recounted 
elsewhere ; many of them will never be known, for he 
ministered to the needy, w^hether in body, in mind, or 
in soul, and only his God knows the full measure of 
his goodness. The secret of Mr. Satterlee's influence 
over those with whom he came in contact was, doubt- 
less, their abiding faith in his goodness, earnestness, 
sincerity. Unaffected, absolutely natural, he won 
those who would have been repelled by the affected or 
veneered. 

''That magnetism by which the Christian gentle- 
man, the sincere and kindly man, won and bound to 
him those he met in the social walks, Mr. Satterlee 
exercised from the pulpit. His belief and his sim- 
plicity drew his hearers toward the Church. 

"Truly, a good man has gone to the reward of the 
righteous.'' 

As showing the cordial relations existing between 
Satterlee and the ministers of other communions, the 
following extract from the formal resolutions passed 
by the Ministerial Brotherhood of Columbia is 
quoted : 

"We, his brother ministers of Christ, held him in 
high esteem for his untiring energy in the Master's 
cause, his large faith in the w^ord and power of his 
Heavenly Father, and for his noble and exemplary 
life among us, so full of kindness and unselfish deeds ; 



178 A FISHER OF MEN. 

and we feel that our communitv has suffered a severe 
and heavy loss by his death/' 

Bishop Capers, in the course of an address deUv- 
ered at the funeral, speaks thus of the secret of Sat- 
terlee's influence: 

**His untiring earnestness, his unselfishness, his 
executive ability, his consecration to his official 
duties, his devotion to the poor, to the sick, and above 
all and beyond most men I have met who were men 
of culture and of great gifts, his marked humility, 
won for him the confidence and affection of hundreds 
of those who came to know him, or to sit under his 
earnest ministry. 

"The charm of his sincerity, the grace of his 
humility, the force of his mind, and the manly sym- 
pathy of his generous heart drew men near to him, 
and they thoroughly trusted, loved and followed 
him." 

The letters received came from all sorts of people, 
dignitaries of the Church, clergymen who at various 
times worked with him or under him, clergymen who 
came only in occasional contact with him, lay workers 
associated with him, both men and women, members 
of the two parishes which he served, personal and 
family friends, and those w^ho had but little direct 
knowledge of him, yet who had learned to respect 
and admire him as the result of what they had heard 
of his work and influence. These letters coming 
from so many different sources and representing 
diverse types of character and individual outlook, yet 



AFTERMATH. 179 

exhibit a remarkable unanimity of sentiment as 
touching the subject of their appreciation. To all, 
Satterlee's personality presented a combination of 
qualities evoking in their hearts a feeling of true rev- 
erence and deep personal affection. The concrete 
portrait presented is that of a man who sincerely 
loved men and ungrudgingly gave himself to their 
service. If not great from a purely intellectual 
standpoint, he may yet be pronounced so in his ability 
to win the love of others and imbue them with a 
measure of his own spiritual devotion and zeal. 

Here is an extract from a letter to Bishop Satterlee 
from the Archdeacon of Columbia : 

"You may have heard it, and a dozen times, but to 
me it is so glorious that I must speak of it — what a 
marvelous influence his three years' living here 
wrought among the people of this town. It is mani- 
fested in so many ways. What you saw, at Trinity, 
the hour we said Mother Church's benediction over 
the honored temple of his soul, was a fair token of 
the estimate placed upon his character here, by all; 
and even those dissenting clergy, who came as close 
up — it was infinitely pathetic to me — as could be 
allowed, brought more than their personal interpre- 
tation of the meaning of the occasion, — they were 
representatives of their people's esteem for and confi- 
dence in him, whose departure is an acknowledged 
common loss. As for the men and women here in 
general, I never go out, without finding some expres- 
sion of the affection borne him, and that even yet 



i8o A FISHER OF MEN. 

sometimes accompanied with tears. The last time 
but one I was on Main street, I was met by Mr. C — , 
a Presbyterian, and president of the CaroHna Bank, 
who grasped my hand most warmly, expressing 
regret that he was absent at the funeral, and speaking 
of his profound admiration of Churchill, and ere we 
parted his eyes were glistening with tears. For a 
man to come among strangers, and in three years, 
w^ithout a thought of doing it, to win the confidence 
and love of a whole community, if this is not to be a 
Christian, what is? 

"As for myself, dear Bishop, always will it be a 
source of strength that for even so short a time I 
could have and hold your son for a friend. He was 
so gracious to me, congenial, gentle, thoughtful. In 
a way which w^as a support he sympathized with me 
concerning the 'peculiar people' to whom I am bound, 
in life and labor — and for all that he was and did, for 
his friendship and confidence and for the tender mem- 
ory of him, I shall be thankful.'' 

Here is an appreciation of Satterlee's character by 
a clergyman w^ho knew him intimately during the 
early part of his career : 

"My ow^n associations with Churchill were before 
and during that important part of one's life w^hen the 
choice of a vocation was receiving quiet yet anxious 
consideration. The same prominent, native charac- 
teristics, then and always shone forth in him. Not 
alone his uniformly gentle, and, therefore, amiable 
qualities, but withal an exceptional regard for perfect 



AFTERMATH. i8i 

fairness in dealing with, or estimating, the characters 
and opinions of others. Anyone acquainted with 
Churchill could not fail to know his distaste for any- 
thing which was not perfectly genuine, his dislike of 
the flimsy, especially in one's character, least of all in 
possible material for the sacred ministry. I think 
often of the cheerfulness which he manifested in 
sickness, when many another, I fancy most of us, 
would have thought ourselves quite unfairly dealt 
with." 

The following is from the Rector of St. Paul's 
School, Concord, N. H. : 

"I have had several delightful letters from your 
son Churchill during the last few years. First he 
wrote me, announcing the birth of his boy ; then later 
with regard to a boy in Morganton whom he thought 
would prove worthy of a scholarship at the School 
and whom he hoped would eventually become a useful 
and honored man in his community, but, as his 
experience ripened he withdrew this first named boy 
and substituted another whom he thought better fitted 
for the life and its advantages. I was rejoiced to be 
able to further his wishes and to aid him to the extent 
of my power in the noble work he had in hand. Since 
his removal to Columbia I have heard from him 
twice, once in answer to some inquiries in regard to 
his work, and again last fall a most cordial response 
to an invitation to spend Thanksgiving Day with 
Mrs. Satterlee at the school and preach to the boys. 
All these letters, few in number though they were, 



i82 A FISHER OF MEN. 

bore the impress of thorough devotion to his work 
and a very lofty standard with regard to it. I should 
imagine that he had endeared himself greatly to the 
people in Columbia. He had those warm and gener- 
ous traits, that sincere and simple piety which won 
him their hearts. It is a sore trial as one grows old 
to see the choice and noble men whom one hopes are 
to carry on the Church's work in the future, and to 
meet with the right courage and wisdom the prob- 
lems that are arising on every side, fall one by one 
in the very prime of life, and one might say at the 
beginning of the battle." 

The three letters following are from clergymen 
who at various times worked under him as curates : 

"Though my knowledge of Mr. Satterlee was as 
compared with that of many others a brief and lim- 
ited one, yet there were certain things that impressed 
themselves upon me in a way that cannot be for- 
gotten. 

"There was, of course, devotion to the cause of his 
Master and the Church, but there was with this a 
certain rare unselfishness and deep humility. There 
was an utter want of egotism and self-assertion. He 
had certain strong opinions and ideas, but he was 
perfectly ready to listen with entire gentleness and 
without any show or trace of feeling to what others 
had to say. 

"And then, as one looks back, one can see how he 
was continually thinking of other people and making 
provision for their happiness and welfare. He was 



AFTERMATH. 183 

always ready, as I knew before I came here, by cor- 
respondence with him, to do all that he could to help 
even the weak and worthless members of his old 
flock, who called out in other quarters only condem- 
nation. 

"He had that mark of the true priest, that his char- 
acter merited confidence, that as many people have 
said, they found it so easy to tell him things about 
themselves. The many deeds of individual help and 
kindness to the sick and distressed, are unknown and 
will ever be unknown. But they are treasured in a 
higher book of record than any earthly one. 

''There is a sad pleasure in looking back to the 
almost boyish impulsiveness and eagerness which 
went always with a real simplicity and purity of 
heart. He has passed from our sight, but his exam- 
ple and memory are still with us to stimulate and 
encourage, especially those of us who are men, in our 
efforts to follow our Master, to serve God, to be pure 
and true and loving.'' 

Another says : 

"I am very happy to say that it was my pleasure 
and privilege to be the assistant of your son. Rev. 
Churchill Satterlee, in Columbia for over a year, and 
consequently I learned to know and to love him a 
great deal. I considered him one of my best and 
kindest friends, and in his death I suffered a personal 
loss. With the exception of the death of my own 
dear father, only three months before, the news of 
Mr. Satterlee's death was the greatest shock I have 



i84 A FISHER OF MEN. 

ever had. He was, in the truest sense of the word, a 
Minister of God, always on the lookout for some way 
in which he could minister to the needs of others, 
thoughtless of self and always thoughtful of others. 
Frequently I would go to him for funds to help some 
of the factory people, and not once do I remember 
being refused when it was at all possible for him to 
help me. He was loved by one and all with whom he 
came in contact, rich or poor, white or black. And 
as our dear Bishop Capers said, at his funeral, he 
owed his success in the Ministry to his humility. As 
a man I loved him; as a Minister of God I honored 
and reverenced him ; as a good, true and kind friend 
I valued him, more than words can express. I con- 
sider the time I worked under his directions the hap- 
piest days of my early ministry." 

A third writes : 

"I became very fond of him during my short term 
of laboring with him in Trinity Church, and it was 
a great sorrow when I felt I must accept the urgent 
call to this parish. Mr. Satterlee was a man of rare 
personality. During my brief sojourn with him I 
saw him in many phases of life. We worked together, 
we took a trip together and we camped together, and 
we also lived together, because I was his guest in his 
home for nearly a month, and during my stay I was 
in and out all the time. At all times his life was one 
of sweetness and gentleness. He was always kind 
and thoughtful and was ever looking out for the 
opportunity to do a kindness for another. He was a 



AFTERMATH. 185 

thorough-going practical Christian who let his light 
shine upon all who came in contact with him. I think 
perhaps the most striking characteristics of his per- 
sonality were his love and gentleness and pure good- 
ness, with humility and simplicity, yet always with 
great dignity. 

"I feel that one of my greatest blessings in going 
to Columbia was in my becoming acquainted with 
your son, whom I loved very dearly. His life was a 
benediction to all who knew him." 

A former professor under whom Satterlee studied 
in the General Theological Seminary, now Vicar of 
Lambeth, London, writes : 

"For Churchill there is nothing but thankfulness. 
His was a pure spirit, freer than that of most men 
from any kind of condemnation, and his joy tempered 
though it is by absence in the flesh from those he 
loves, must be great. Now face to face, what that is, 
who can tell? he has found the solution of all prob- 
lems in the realization of a perfect Life which over- 
laps them all." 

The Bishop of Salina, who knew Satterlee during 
his boyhood, has this to say : 

"He seems indeed to have endeared himself to his 
people, and certainly did a splendid work for Christ. 

"I well remember at Blue Mountain Lake you 
asked me to encourage him to study for the ministry. 
You said, 'If you had a dozen sons, wouldn't you 
want them all to study for the ministry?' Though 



i86 A FISHER OF MEN. 

you had only the one, he seems to have done a twelve- 
fold service." 

The Bishop of North Carolina, who recommended 
Satterlee to his Morganton parish, pays this tribute 
to his character : 

"I have known very few men who impressed me 
as being so truly godly and pure and high minded." 

The Bishop of Southern Ohio, who sought to 
secure Satterlee for an important work in his own 
diocese, writes: 

'T know w^hat he was to you and to others, how 
nobly he had gone on, fulfilling your own best ideals 
for him as a man and a man of God. I went from 
here to Asheville, to try and get him for my Cincin- 
nati Associate Mission. I never shall forget the im- 
pression he made on me." 

Writes the Bishop of Los Angeles, who had 
known him from his boyhood: 

"Churchill was such a dear, useful, manly man. I 
had heard nothing of his illness, and only last week, 
in a Church paper, something was said of a fresh 
honor that had been conferred upon him. I thought 
of him as still doing the same vigorous work that he 
had been doing ever since he went to Columbia." 

The Bishop of Albany, who ordained Satterlee to 
the priesthood, and in whose diocese he began his 
ministry, writes : 

"It is among the grateful memories of my episco- 
pate that I was in more ways than one connected with 
Churchill. As a missionary in the Adirondack 



AFTERMATH. 187 

region of the Diocese of Albany, where he laid the 
foundations of a mission that has grown to such 
strength ; as at work in the old parish of St. Peter's 
in the city; and as one of the men whom I ordered 
to the Priesthood, I came to know him well and to 
love him better than I knew him. He combined in 
his character rare spiritual gifts, unusual intellectual 
power, and a consecrated energy which gave the 
whole of himself without reserve to the work of the 
Master. There was in his life the promise, as we 
thought, of the longer service which God did not 
grant him, and of the larger service which he carried 
out in his work in North Carolina." 

The Bishop of Massachusetts writes : 

"With what satisfaction and pride you have 
watched your son Churchill from childhood. What 
gratitude you must have felt at his entrance into 
Holy Orders. Above all, however, must be the note 
of gratitude that he has through life been a loving 
son and a pure and devoted follower of the Master. 
He has been of the saints through life, and now he is 
numbered with them above." 

The Bishop of California, in whose diocese Satter- 
lee did mission work for a while, writes : 

"How well I remember the charm of his person- 
ality and the devotedness to his calling, when I had 
the opportunity of meeting him in Southern Califor- 
nia not long after his ordination. His rest has come 
early, early has he fulfilled his noble ministry." 



i88 A FISHER OF MEN. 

The Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of Pennsyl- 
vania sends this letter : 

''He bore in his countenance a wonderful testimony 
to his character. It always seemed to me that I had 
never met a young man who impressed one as more 
thoroughly and essentially the Christian gentleman 
than he. The story of his work in North Carolina 
before he went to Columbia was a noble one. I had 
from time to time more or less correspondence with 
him, and his whole attitude towards that interesting 
mountain work always inspired me and made me feel 
that here was a man who was not only living a life of 
the greatest usefulness, but one in which he was him- 
self sanctified by his own unselfish effort. The record 
of the way in which his life was regarded in Colum- 
bia, later on, showed that its inspiration remained. 
Had he been born and educated in that neighborhood, 
the community could not have been more deeply 
moved by his loss. I doubt whether any man who, in 
this generation, has gone from one portion of the 
country to another, has ever won so thorough a 
respect, and so cordial an affection. He bound 
together the North and the South by another golden 
cord of good will, and of service willingly rendered 
and received in his Master's Name. Brief as was his 
life, he did a work which, however modest and un- 
known to the great ])ublic of the country, Avas yet 
sufficient to surround his name with a halo in the eyes 
of those who knew about him, and to show other 
young men what can be accomplished by the quiet 



AFTERMATH. 189 

life of a soul that has thought only of doing the best 
and noblest in the service of God and man." 

The Bishop of Pennsylvania, who knew him only 
by the reputation which his work had won for him, 
writes thus : 

"I had not the pleasure of your son's acquaintance, 
but I have heard much of him, of his commanding 
ability, and self-sacrificing spirit and heroic devotion 
to the work to which he had been so manifestly 
called." 

The Bishop of East Carolina, who was familiar, 
from his personal knowledge, with Satterlee's mis- 
sionary labors in Morganton, thus expresses himself : 

''We are grieved and shocked by the news of your 
loss. It would have been sad news for us anyhow, 
but it is more keenly so, because of our very pleasant 
and cordial reception by him, and our sight of his 
good work when I visited Morganton when Bishop 
Cheshire was abroad. I did so admire your son and 
his work that I could not help wishing him to help me 
in my own diocese. But God has taken him to a 
higher life, and we may be sure, to a higher work." 

The Bishop of Asheville, under whom, for a time, 
Satterlee worked at Morganton, says : 

''His ability to win the love and confidence of all 
the people with w^hom he came in contact was phe- 
nomenal." 

The Bishop of West Virginia writes : 

"I never knew him, but I had always such accounts 
of his life and work, that I could not but think of him 



I90 A FISHER OF MEN. 

as a great comfort to you and of great promise to the 
Church/' 

Says the Bishop of Maine, who was at the Semi- 
nary with him : 

''Yes, Churchill was your offering to the Master 
for work here and in Paradise." 

The Bishop of New Jersey, who at one time sought 
to secure his services for the Associate Mission in 
Trenton, writes : 

'The last person I saw^ as I left Washington the 
day after the Missionary Council, was your son, a 
prince among men in his beauty and stature, and 
likely to live for many a year. The Church loses 
heavily in his death, but your loss is greatest of all/'' 

The Bishop of New York, under whose jurisdiction 
he entered the ministrv, declares : 

"His high ideal of his ministry, and his entire con- 
secration to it always impressed me." 

The Bishop of Western Massachusetts writes : 

"I did not know your boy well. You remember 
you put him in my charge once, on shipboard, but he 
had so many friends then, I saw little of him. I 
remember how handsome and attractive he was, and 
since then his praise has been in everybody's mouth. 
The Church has suffered a great loss." 

A classmate at the Seminary, who labored in an 
adjacent diocese, sends this appreciation : 

"While our acquaintance at the Seminary was 
casual, we all knew his sterling worth. I followed 
his course in the Ministry with growing interest and 



AFTERMATH. 191 

admiration. So impressed was I with the richness of 
his character, and his striking administrative abihty, 
that it was with real pleasure I earnestly strove 
to have him for my Bishop, although so young, when 
the Council of East Carolina met to elect a Coadjutor, 
placing his name before the Council and maintaining 
it. And, if in God's Providence he might have held 
that high office, T am sure my regard and affection 
would have but increasingly gone out to him. Now 
that the Master has called him to the more perfect 
service and its rich rewards, I am grateful for his 
life and that I knew somewhat of it." 

The Rector of old St. Alichael's Church of Charles- 
ton, S. C, writes : 

"His simplicity of character, his earnestness of 
purpose and devotion to his work impressed us all. 
His was indeed a beautiful life, and an inspiring 
example, and I feel that I am a better man for having 
know^n him. He had won his way so entirely into 
the hearts and sympathies of the people of Trinity 
and of Columbia, that no tribute they could render 
was sufficiently expressive of their feelings towards 
him, and it is very much to know that he had won 
this secure place after so comparatively brief a min- 
istry." 

One of Satterlee's clerical neighbors, while at Mor- 
ganton, w^ho had experienced the power of his sym- 
pathy, writes as follows : 

"Of all those among the clergy I have met, I think 

your son was, without exception, the most lovable. 
13 



192 A FISHER OF MEN. 

When I was in the Diocese of Asheville, I met him 
frequently. At that time I was very much broken, 
was discouraged and saddened. The last night I was 
in the diocese I spent at his house in Morganton. 
After we had retired, he rose and came to my room, 
and sat on the edge of the bed and we had a long 
talk. Kind hearted, sympathetic, and above all, mar- 
velously clear headed, he seemed to know by intuition 
just the right word to say. The next morning he 
went with me to the train. It was long before sun-^ 
rise, and he insisted on telegraphing to you, that you 
might expect me as a guest the next day in Wash- 
ington. 

"To my mind he was above all others adapted to 
missionary work. I have ever looked to his becom- 
ing a Missionary Bishop. In the Convention at 
Albany, the eleventh of last month, I had a talk with 
a few young men who also knew him. We agreed 
to put him in nomination as Bishop Coadjutor. I 
was to present his name and one of the others was to 
second it. It was unlikely that he would receive more 
than our own votes, but it would satisfy my own con- 
science. The one who had promised to second my 
nomination lost courage and failed me. At the time 
I felt very much annoyed, but I am glad I did make 
the little speech I did, and publicly testified to my 
appreciation of him." 

One who during his deaconate had been the recipi- 
ent of Satterlee's friendship and brotherly help, sends 
his grateful acknowledgment : 



AFTERMATH. 193 

''If I have had any success in the Ministry, it is due 
in great part to what I learned visiting your son at 
the rectory in Morganton and asking his advice, for 
he never failed to encourage me. I came to him 
when I needed a friend, and often exchanged Sunday 
services, so as to give my people the blessed Sacra- 
ment of the Holy Communion. In December, 1902, 
he called me to assist him in his work at Columbia. 
These things naturally drew me to Mr. Satterlee, 
whom I admired not a little for his beautiful life and 
zealous ministry.'' 

A young clergyman who was associated with him 
for several years writes : 

"It was a pleasure to know him, and to be so inti- 
mately associated with him as I was for several years. 
The secret of his success was no secret to those who 
saw him unreservedly. He gave himself to his work. 
Like the Master whom he so faithfully served, he 
spared not himself. It is not surprising that his peo- 
ple always loved him." 

One of the Masters at St. Paul's School writes : 

"From the time of his coming here as a boy, to the 
day of his death as a man, he has given us at the 
School only remembrances that made us proud to 
have him an old St. Paul's boy. 

"I do not like to think of the loss to the Church of 
his earnest and telling work for the Lord and for the 
men w^hom He came to save. I love to think that 
somehow for the dead who worked for Christ here, 
there is, in that time of waiting, some real sphere of 



194 A FISHER OF MEN. 

helpfulness that corresponds in its proper degree to 
'the preaching to the Spirits in prison.' Even for the 
Church of Christ such a death is so made less of a 
loss than it seems. 

"It is, however, from those among whom he 
directly ministered, from those who were drawn to 
him by the cords of his helpfulness and human sym- 
pathy, that the most illuminating estimate of Sat- 
terlee's personality is naturally to be found.'' 

One of the devoted women who labored side by 
side with him in the mountains of North Carolina 
and subsequently in the mill work at Columbia writes, 
evidentlv out of the fulness of her heart : 

"You must know how I loved him, who by his 
helpful encouragement had developed all that was 
best in me, who has in the past four happy years 
made me feel that the Master had work for me to do 
in His vineyard. I who always felt so privileged to 
be one of his teachers ! I think our Heavenly Father 
must have in His tender blessings to His children, 
have given me those bright days with him last sum- 
mer, when again I might learn from him in that 
w^onderful humility, that pure unselfishness, that lov- 
ing, pitiful, sympathetic, forgiving heart, so full of 
love for humanity, and who in seeing the best in 
others, made them show him the best; and who by 
his own humble, holy walk with God and sincere 
belief in His word, led others so willingly, lovingly 
to Him, and made us feel it was so easy and happy 
to be a child of God. What a wonderful magnetic. 



AFTERMATH. 195 

tactful, God-given gift he had in his influence with 
all kinds and sorts of people. I can never forget his 
wonderful patience and love for his Alpine sheep, 
steep and uphill though they had made the way to 
win them and bring them into the Master's fold. I 
think in this precious work of his and his wonderful 
success must have been written on his heart the para- 
ble of the Shepherd, searching after his lost lamb, 
'more precious in his sight' than 'the ninety and nine 
which went not astray.' And the milling people, how 
they reverenced him ! I can see them now, gathering 
around him for a word, after those talks with them 
Sunday nights. Their careworn faces would brighten 
as they told me how they loved to have him with 
them, and to hear him preach. And I must recall to 
his own precious wife, the wonderful sweet bright 
smile that illumined his face when a little girl pre- 
sented him with a beautiful bunch of Southern 
flowers here at our little entertainment at the Mis- 
sion, and said, 'Mr. Satterlee, we give these flowers 
to you w4th our love, and wish you a happy visit 
away and a speedy return,' and he turned to the audi- 
ence, his face all aglow at the happy thought, and 
said he had been counting the hours when he would 
be with Mrs. Satterlee, and told them to think of him 
at such a time when he would take those beautiful 
flowers to her." 

Here is a joint letter from three brothers, who 
were members of the Morganton Chapter of the 
Brotherhood of St. Andrew : 



196 A FISHER OF MEN. 

"Now that our whole community has met, creed 
and class thrown for the time to one side, to express 
their sense of his loss, w^e feel a mournful interest in 
recording for your own eye, the great good wrought 
in our lives by the association permitted to us with 
him, whom we shall, alas, see no more with earthly 
eyes. 

"That we may meet him and enjoy communion 
with him in another and higher realm, is now the 
greatest hope we have in life. Bowing, as he would 
have us bow, to God's decree, had the blow fallen 
elsewhere, we recall with unalloyed joy the happy 
years of his ministry in this little town, his pleasant 
passing in and out among us, the sweet savor of his 
blessing, the sacred hours when he had us in the wor- 
ship of the temple. Our children remember him and 
speak of him now, even more tenderly that we, their 
innocent hearts being more responsive. 

"We can recall no death in our memories that was 
more taken to heart by the people at large. They 
talked of it on the streets, worldly men, who stopped 
to recall some kindly greeting of his in the past, and 
to mention some good deed done at the time in secret, 
but which had come to their knowledge since he left 
us. We, who write you this, were in the Brotherhood 
of St. Andrew with him, where, free from the 
restraint of the pulpit he poured out his sweetest self, 
and was bon camarade, rather than rector. He 
never gave us an order for Church work, merely the 
gentlest of suggestion as to what should be done by 



AFTERMATH. 197 

any of us, and it is a pleasure, inexpressible now, to 
remember that like the invitation of royalty, it was 
regarded as a command and obeyed without hesita- 
tion, and in good confidence of its exact fitness to the 
matter in hand. 

"We feel the poverty of words as never before in 
writing you this. We should but for a serious illness 
in the family of one of us, have had a representative 
at Columbia when the last love of the South was 
shown him, and now we can but ask God's blessing 
on you and the children." 

Another member of the Morganton Chapter sends 
the following: 

"Mr. Satterlee was very dear to me and mine. His 
friendship I prized above all men, and to me it was a 
privilege seldom equalled. Not only do we mourn 
with you, but this whole community is sorrowful, the 
one topic being him and his work, self-sacrificing in 
behalf of others, always doing good, always smooth- 
ing over the rough places. Truly he Valked with 
God.' Would that I had seen him before he left, but 
1 feel that his spirit is still with us. I always cher- 
ished a feeling that some day he would return to his 
flock here, but now there is a lonely feeling; some 
day we shall all meet, for I know he will intercede 
for us who might stray from the straight path. His 
work here will live for all time, and will be a monu- 
ment more enduring than marble or brass." 

This is from a member of the Columbia Chapter 
of the Brotherhood : 



198 A FISHER OF MEN. 

"I felt that I must write to tell you of the sincere 
love I bore for Mr. Satterlee, ever since it was my 
good fortune to know him. No one will ever know 
what his life meant to me. It is without hesitation 
that I make the assertion that no one could have 
drawn me into the Church as Mr. Satterlee has done. 
He was the means of bringing me into the Sunday- 
school, for I was delighted when an opportunity was 
offered me to assist him in any way. Duty became a 
pleasure when he was in any way connected with it. 
At his invitation I became a member of the Brother- 
hood of St. Andrew, and was happy to do anything 
I could for him. I would die for such a man." 
A prominent lawyer of Columbia writes thus : 
^'I loved your son with all my heart, and the dear- 
est and sweetest recollections of him were those to 
which I could not give publicity since their nature 
was altogether private, either in relation to me as 
friend or priest, but there are other recollections 
which will abide, in the hearts and minds of all those 
who were blessed with his rectorship at Trinity 
Church, forever.'' 

Here is the expression of a widow's sorrow : 
"We too mourn the loss of our dear, true friend, 
whose place can never be filled. Just what he was to 
me and my fatherless children, only God knows. L — 
will, I know, be a better, nobler man for having been 
under his influence." 

This was written by a parishioner of Trinity 
Church, Columbia: 



AFTERMATH. 199 

"And now the deserted home is a constant re- 
minder of the brave Christian soldier, who in his 
brief stay with us, accompHshed so much for others. 
Strange, it seems to us poor mortals, that such beau- 
tiful lives are so soon ended. He has finished the 
work God has given him to do on earth, and now he 
has gone to beautify the Temple not made with 
hands. Our prayer must be for strength and means 
to carry on the work begun, and, may we never forget 
the example set us by the noble self-sacrificing life. 
Some one said to me, ^Mr. Satterlee was so sweet to 
those in trouble that I cannot but feel that he has 
gone to take a message of comfort to our loved and 
lost' " 

The three following extracts are from letters 
written by women parishioners at Morganton : 

"We can't forget him, for we almost worshipped 
him. How true in his case were the words, ^To know 
him is to love him.' I have just started a Sunday- 
school class, composed of boys about sixteen, who I 
know would never have drifted if he were here. If 
I can even interest them a little, I shall feel that I am 
in some way helping to carry on his great and noble 
work, begun among us." 

"You know how we all here loved dear Mr. Sat- 
terlee, and we really feel broken hearted, and your 
sorrow is our sorrow. He was so much to us, not 
only as a congregation but individually; next to my 
immediate family, I loved him best. I feel that he 



200 A FISHER OF MEN. 

did so much for my soul, his sermons went straight 
to my heart; his Hfe was an inspiration, he was so 
pure and holy, and the godliest man I ever knew. 
Though he has been away for three years, he is as 
dear to this parish as when he left. Amidst the 
mourning draperies in the church to-day I could feel 
his spirit hovering near." 

^It would have been a sad sweet pleasure to you to 
have been at the beautiful memorial service held in 
our little church yesterday (for it seemed as if he 
were almost with us), by the citizens of the town, 
and presided over by the Bishop. So many men paid 
beautiful tributes of love to one whom we all loved. 
Men of the Church, men of the Mission, and men in 
all the other communions joined in words of love and 
admiration for him, and one thought was expressed 
by all sooner or later, ^It was good to have known and 
lived with such a man.' " 

This is from a young man living in Columbia : 
"This community has lost greatly by the death of 
your esteemed husband, for I do not believe any man 
ever came to this city and did as much good as he did 
in the short time he was here. The people here will 
never forget him." 

A Morganton lawyer sends this tribute : 
"I loved him as a brother, and his influence over me 
enriched and ennobled my life all the time I was 
under it. This whole community mourns, for he was 
universally loved and respected." 



AFTERMATH. 201 

A prominent business man of New York who had 
known Satterlee from boyhood, and whose advice he 
often sought on personal and other matters, sends the 
following : 

^'It is needless for me to tell you how highly I 
esteemed him and how deeply I regret his death. 
Churchill had strengthened as years went by, and the 
last time I saw him I was greatly impressed with his 
mental growth. I believe that he was fast becoming 
one of the strongest men in the Church. I know that 
he stood high among the clergy. He was always 
good, gentle, lovable, with strong mental force and 
vigor behind it. He would write to me about two 
long letters a year, telling me of his work, his hopes 
and his progress, though the last he always under- 
rated." 

A former resident of South Carolina, now living 
in Washington, writes : 

"Mr. Satterlee w^as greatly beloved in South Caro- 
lina, — his w^ork there was a great and noble one. He 
truly taught many to follow in the footsteps of the 
meek and lowly Jesus, not only by his sermons and 
ministrations, but by his lovely Christian example 
also. The State has sustained a loss, which will be 
hard to replace." 

The following letter is from a vestryman of Holy 
Trinity Church, Philadelphia: 

"It was my great privilege to know Churchill dur- 
ing his early ministry. Our friendship commenced 
on an ocean steamer. We sat side by side at the 



202 A FISHER OF MEN. 

table, and whether there or as we paced the upper 
deck, our talk was on the subject dearest to his heart, 
namely, How to save men. His secret of success 
was his burning love for Christ and a burning love 
for those for whom Christ died. His whole heart 
was possessed with the earnest desire to save the 
immortal lives of men. During his ministry at Mor- 
ganton. North Carolina, he invited me several times 
to spend a week with him while the courts were in 
session and to speak daily at the noon hour on the 
subject of personal religion, to lawyers assembled 
from all parts of the State. I have always regretted 
that I could not fulfill such an engagement. I felt 
his personality in my own heart. His life, so spotless, 
so unselfish, was a living power to me." 

A prominent member of Trinity Church, an inti- 
mate friend of the rector's, and one of the leading 
men of Columbia, has this to say : 

"I never realized our rector's greatness until he 
was taken away from us. It is now two months since 
his death, and the further his form recedes into the 
past the stronger my consciousness of his real great- 
ness grows. In pondering this I have thought many 
times, that thus it is with God's saints — when they 
are present with us in bodily form, their physical 
nature seems to act as a veil which, for the time being, 
obscures and hides the real grandeur of their char- 
acters." 



IN MEMORIAM 

CHURCHILL SATTERLEE. 

The youthful sower in the morning Hght 
Went forth in joy to sow the goodly seed, 

Himself he spared not, put forth all his might, 
Nor asked an earthly guerdon for his meed. 

The sun arose, but ere he reached his noon 
We saw the sow^er stricken in his field ; 

"Too soon," our hearts in anguish cried, "too soon. 
Who sows the seed should reap the harvest's yield." 

Ah, so we reason in our human way. 

We say of one, "His work hath just begun," 

Of other, "He hath filled up full his day" ; 
Yet how know we when any's work is done? 

To each the Master sets his proper task ; 

He only knoweth when the tale is done ; 
He surely will for no true servant ask 

Until he hath the day's full wages won. - 

And so, my brother, though we mourn for thee. 
We may not say thy life knew not its goal ; 

Thy Master's own, "Well done," eternally 
Shall be the satisfaction of thy soul. 

— H. S. 

THE END. 



MAY 18 1905 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proce 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: March 2006 

PreservationTechnologii 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATI 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Dnve 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




017 523 275 8 






iHrii'!' 















iKi.t'iiti.jl'il 






1: ':>•!??, 'fi;'!»'::i. 






?'ii!r 






-•;vi:ii;:;j 



'hit 









